MMA: Stomping on stereotypes

For those who still think mixed martial arts is solely the domain of bruisers who have been punched in the head one too many times, Spike TV would like to introduce you to heavyweight Abe Wagner.

Wagner, you see, acts equally at home behind a desk and in the cage. Yes, in a business suit he looks as though he might pack a punch. But start asking him questions, and it becomes clear Wagner is a walking contradiction who stomps all over the fighter stereotype.

Abe, what does MMA mean to you?

“Fighting is my avocation rather than my vocation,” he says without hesitation.

It's answers like that — as well as the 29-year-old Omahan's résumé as a fighter — that undoubtedly intrigued producers of “The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights,” the latest installment of the UFC's popular reality show that brings together the best up-and-coming MMA fighters in the country. The show debuts at 9 tonight on Spike TV.

Wagner's appearance on the weekly show is his chance to become a featured name in the world's top fighting organization. But his story might be most interesting because of what he does outside the cage. Wagner is director of finance and operations for Precision Industries in Omaha, one of the world's largest supply chain services and industrial distribution companies.

“You don't have a lot of people working professional jobs, working eight hours a day and fighting professionally,” said Chris Circo, Precision's president and chief operating officer. “In many cases, the two don't go hand in hand.”

Circo also happens to be the owner of Victory Fighting Championship, a regional MMA organization in which Wagner owns the heavyweight champion's belt. So Circo has witnessed Wagner's growth in the business and fight worlds.

“He's smart on every level,” Circo said.

He's also fit to be a fighter, as his background attests.

Wagner calls his childhood “rough,” describing himself as a product of a “bad home situation.” Born in Milwaukee, he bounced around, including periods of living in Houston and Colorado Springs, Colo. He went to high school in northern Wisconsin before playing football at Michigan Tech.

He also experienced some fisticuffs along the way.

“There was fighting,” he says, “in inappropriate places at inappropriate times.”

After college, his NFL aspirations faded and a job in Omaha beckoned. But he still had a competitive itch — not to mention all that size. At 6-foot-4 and somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 pounds, he found fighting a good fit.

The first MMA fight he saw, coincidentally, was on the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” which debuted in January 2005. There have been nine seasons of the show in the four years since. Wagner will be featured in the 10th.

Not long after moving to Omaha, Wagner made a call to Mid-America Martial Arts and said he was interested in fighting. Aaron Cerrone, now Wagner's coach and the gym's owner, told him to come on by.

“I was there that afternoon,” Wagner said.

But he was a little green.

“He pretty much walked into the gym having never done it before,” Cerrone said. “When people come in and say that they're ready to fight, I'm usually like, ‘Whatever.' He just started training, and one thing led to another.”

Wagner owns a 7-2 record as a pro and has a belt. Now comes “The Ultimate Fighter.”

To make the show, Wagner, along with Omaha videographer Matt Kelly, put together an audition tape in April. After being picked from a second audition, he spent six weeks from early June to mid-July living in a house in Las Vegas with 15 other fighters.

Contractually, there is very little that Wagner is allowed to say about the show.

He does say, with a laugh, that “there wasn't too much intellectual stimulation.”

We do know this: The coaches for the two groups pitted against each other are light heavyweights Rashad Evans and Rampage Jackson. Those two will headline a card later in which the two finalists also fight for a UFC contract.

And this: His roommate on the show is Kimbo Slice.

“He's actually surprisingly normal,” Wagner said. “Just like a lot of people, I had prior conceptions. But once I got to know him, I realized he was a lot like the rest of the guys there.”

So, Abe, could there be a little battle between a businessman and Kimbo in the offing?

As with just about everything else about the show, Wagner's got a two-word answer:

“Stay tuned.”

Contact the writer:

850-0781, nickrubek@hotmail.com

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