Most street predators would feel confident in rolling Placido Domingo over: In addition to being wealthy, he's not very ambulatory. But some UK thieves picked the wrong opera singer to accost on Oct. 12. That's when, according to the Kilburn Times, singer Jake Furey defended himself as only a fighter-slash-singer could: By punching and screaming at them.

"One of [them] hit me in the face but it was nothing so I jumped back into the road to give myself more room and got my fists up ready," Furey said. "A couple of them then started going for their pockets as if they were grabbing a knife and I had to think 'do I want a fight or should I play safe?' … I decided to play it safe so [I] called out for help and at that point they ran off. I'm classically trained as an opera singer and I think that helped scare these guys off as they did not expect me to be so loud."

Furey -- who sports a name that would be right at home in a pulp novel -- added that police were unable to locate the gang. The Times indentifies him as a "cage fighter," which might be a bit of a misnomer, but, still -- good for him.