Fighting Is A Basic Instinct For Some Mixed Martial Arts Athletes
Brandon "Devil Dog" Sene fights Jason "Lunchbox" Barlog during Cage Wars IV Friday. Sene won when he put Barlog in an Arm Bar.
JIM COLLINS / TBO.com
Published: Jul 13, 2007
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TAMPA Kobe Bryant, Alex Rodriguez, Tiger Woods and LaDainian Tomlinson are so gifted in their respective sports, they likely have motivated millions to pick up a ball.
Even if those would-be athletes practiced daily for the next three years, it is highly unlikely they would be ready to play in the NBA, hit a major-league curveball, shoot par at Augusta National, or shake linebacker Ray Lewis in the open field.
However, Tampa's Brandon Sene and Joe Wissmann are not facing the limitations most aspiring athletes endure.
Sene, 26, is a former Marine sniper and civilian contractor who worked to provide security for high-ranking diplomats, such as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense. Sene currently owns an engineering business in Tampa with his brother.
Wissmann, 23, is a customer service manager at Everest Financial Services, a student loan consolidation center in Oldsmar. He attended Dixie Hollins High, but dropped out as a 15-year-old sophomore to take care of his grandmother, who had Alzheimer's. He earned a general education diploma, worked at Hungry Howie's Pizza, and became a customer service representative five years ago. Wissmann was promoted to manager 18 months later and currently supervises 12 employees.
Instead of punching the time clock, the two white-collar employees will attempt to knock out their mixed martial arts opponents when they make their fighting debuts tonight at the Florida State Fairgrounds. Both will appear on the World Fighting Championships "Cage Wars" card, which begins at 8 p.m.
Wissmann, 5-foot-11 and 170 pounds, will fight Brandon Cooley, while Sene (5-11, 205) will face Jason Barlog.
"Fighting is a primitive thing. It's almost an instinct for a lot of people. If you are assaulted, you are naturally going to defend yourself and fight back. If somebody throws a fastball toward your hands, that [swinging a bat] is not really a natural thing to do," Sene said. "I don't know why anybody would look at fighting and say they would want to do that and focus on it, but the reason I do it is because it comes natural and fits my personality.
"I've played basketball and football. I ran track in high school. I was athletic and did well in those sports, but ever since I've seen mixed martial arts, I've been hooked."
Rob Khan, owner of Gracie Tampa, a Brazilian jujitsu and mixed martial arts training center in north Tampa, has seen a rising number of people becoming addicted to his sport.
Khan, who also trains Wissmann and Sene, said 10 percent of his clients are current or aspiring MMA professionals, while he has more than 200 people taking his classes for health and recreation.
"This is currently the renaissance period of MMA," Khan said. "A lot of guys play baseball or basketball and know they will not be professionals, but they love the sport. Many people want to fight, and even though they may never make it, they love the sport.
"Fighting is just the truest test of character, desire, internal fortitude and gives participants an incredible adrenalin rush. There is nothing more intense than being in front of hundreds of screaming fans and it's just you and another guy."
Wissmann has always been addicted to competition.
After Wissmann began training, he quit six months later after getting hooked on "Dark Age Of Camelot," an online role-playing game. Once Wissmann finished working, he would come home and play on his computer for hours.
Wissmann became so addicted, he owned four computers and played simultaneously.
"I loved the game, but another reason I got hooked was because I was making money off it. I was selling in-game stuff on eBay," Wissmann said. "You can get gold currency, create characters, and I was pretty advanced.
"I would sell 1,000 gold for $20, and sometimes sell 10,000 gold for a couple hundred bucks. Then again, if I think about the time and money I invested into it, I probably didn't make that much money at all."
Wissmann eventually decided to resume his mixed martial arts training three years ago and has since quit playing online games.
Khan is convinced Sene will be a World Extreme Cagefighting competitor within two years, and predicts his fighter will win in spectacular fashion tonight. Sene is more tranquil.
His goal is eventually to open a jujitsu school and Sene plans to use mixed martial arts for credibility and visibility.
"I own a company with my brother. It's a good job, I have the opportunity to make pretty good money and have a good life, but there is nothing challenging about that to me. It's a routine, and when that happens, I find myself to be very unhappy with life," Sene said. "I don't do well when I don't have something challenging me, and not mentally, but physically.
"That being said, I'm not just trying to do it [fight] and get out of it. I want to pursue it and take this as far as I can."
And live without limitations.
Reporter Anwar S. Richardson can be reached at (813) 259-8425 or arichardson@tampatrib.com.
