An MMA fighter put up a fierce battle against a rather unusual opponent — a 10ft alligator — after it wandered into a school to terrorise kids.
Mike Dragich, who previously served in the US Marine Corps, received a last minute call from wildlife officials asking for help trapping the wild beast at an elementary school in Jacksonville, Florida, on May 21)
The licensed trapper shared a video of him wrestling the predator in an open ground area.
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He pulled the gator's tail and tried to loop the catchpole around its mouth.
But the scaly reptile ripped the tool apart and engaged in a death roll to crush Mike.
Police officers, young children and nearby residents were watching from the other side of a fence.
They cheered when Mike won the battle.
He taped the alligator's mouth and sat on its back for a quick photo before removing the beast from the school.
"It was a unique experience," he told local station News4Jax.
"I walked up and there was a huge 10ft alligator and a job had to get done.
"It was a beast, but luckily we handled it."
The expert explained to the reporter that he has a tactic when it came to gator trapping.
"I looked like I was poking and messing with it a bit but you have to get these animals tired," Mike explained.
"They are way too powerful. It broke my catchpole and it's stainless steel, it's significantly bent and broken."
Some viewers noticed the children's reactions, with one saying: "Those kids will always remember this great job!"
"This is why they use to teach you how to run away from an alligator in PE in elementary school. Zig zag method. It happens," a second wrote.
Others wondered what happened to the alligator after it was removed from the school.
Mike mentioned in the TV interview that it had to be put down for safety reasons.
He explained: "We couldn't relocate the alligator somewhere else, it wouldn't have been good to the community. It wouldn't be good for the wildlife around that area
"There was a time and a place, and this was that time, where we had to harvest that alligator."
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