There have been many "blue collar" fighters coming out of the Midwest. Miletich's fighters, Shonie Carter and the Gassaway brothers out of Bob Schirmer's All American Academy, Dave Menne, Team Extreme (Challenge), all have proven that they are tough and skilled enough to compete with anyone in the world. Adrian Serrano has to be added to that list. Serrano has an extensive martial arts background and has taken his time entering the NHB arena. He has been training in a number of different martial arts for years and jumped in when he felt that he was ready. And boy was he ready! He is fighting in a ton of events. Serrano has racked up an impressive and extensive record in NHB and a lot of other types of competitions. Serrano has quietly been making a name for himself by fighting in anything and everything. Like all of the Midwestern fighters, Serrano is tough as nails and is willing to go toe to toe with anyone and has done so on numerous occasions. I caught up with Serrano at the Ironheart Crown 2000 in Chicago, Illinois on November 4, 2000.

FCF: You are an experienced fighter both in your training background and your actual fight experience. Can you give us a detailed description of your martial arts background?
Adrian Serrano: I started Judo when I was six years old and I still consider myself a Judo person, even though I don't compete in Judo tournaments that much anymore. I still jump in with one of the local Judo clubs and do an out right Judo workout about once a month to this day. So I still consider myself a Judo man. I started competing in wrestling in junior high school and I added Sambo after college, about the time that I wanted to give no holds barred fighting a try. In the early nineties, I found a Kempo Karate school and I wanted to just start training there, but they made me a grappling instructor right away, teaching grappling to Karate students and learning their system. Eventually I got a black belt in Kempo Karate, I learned a lot, but I needed more because I was somewhat limited in my in-ring fighting, so I sought out and worked out with Jeff Roufus, the champion kickboxer out of Milwaukee. Thai kickboxing really helped me a lot. That's pretty much my background.

FCF: You have also fought in a number of different types of competitions. Can you let us know the different types of competitions you entered and what is your fight record in each style?
AS: Literally over 1,000 Judo matches since I was a kid, maybe just over 100 Sambo matches, mostly in the early '90s. I actually didn't do too many Sambo tournaments because my first Sambo tournament was the nationals and I won without really knowing what Sambo was. I just did Judo and won. So there was never really a need for me to go to one of the local tournaments, not that the local tournaments were anywhere near I was. There was some Sambo tournaments on the east coast and the west coast, but I never felt a need to go to one. I pretty much only did national and international Sambo tournaments. That's why the number isn't that many. I've only competed in national championships, world championships and world cups. I did a lot of wrestling from junior high school all the way up through college, but I never entered a point fighting Karate tournament or something like that. And since I started competing in the mixed martial arts, I've been doing Sport Jiu-Jitsu here and there, never an outright Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament. A couple of times some competitions were close to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu rules, but not exactly, more Sport Jiu-Jitsu or with gis, going for submissions, but not Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu-type points. It's not my strength to go for the knee in the belly points or something like that. Nothing against it, that's a good system and I even send some of my students to those tournaments now. I use one of my assistant instructors to get them more prepared for it than I, because that was more his strength rather than mine. But over the last three years, it's pretty much been all no-holds barred fighting or Shootfighting.

FCF: What is your current record?
AS: My current mixed martial arts record is 61-14-4, so tonight will be my 80th and hopefully 81st match [at the Ironheart Crown 2000].

FCF: What titles have you earned during this time?
AS: I have six titles in the mixed martial arts. Probably the most significant are the ones that I vacated a while back. I did hold the Extreme Challenge Middleweight Championship for almost two and a half years before I vacated it and I held the Extreme Challenge Light Heavyweight Championship for like two or three months, both of which I vacated on the same night. I also hold the HooknShoot Pancrase rules Light Heavyweight Championship because they have no-holds barred rules and Pancrase rules. I am the Pancrase Light Heavyweight Champion. I am the SFC, that organization is done now, but I was the SFC Light Heavyweight Champion for that organization. And a new organization that splintered out of the SFC is the Striker's Union or Striker's Union Challenge, the name might change eventually, but with that organization we do Shootboxing rules, which is a little different, but in that I am the Cruiserweight Champion. And something that I won a long time ago but the organization folded, I am the Reality Combat Heavyweight Champion.

FCF: You spoke a little about your school, why don't you tell us more about it?
AS: I run a school, you can call it a mixed martial arts school, in Milwaukee. We spend most of our time concentrating on our grappling. The finesse of grappling takes longer [to develop] than striking. Not that striking isn't complicated, but the striking that we work on is very straight forward and very basic, just Muay Thai style with the elements of my Kempo Karate. I use some kickboxers in Milwaukee, from the Roufus school, to teach at my school. So it is very straight forward. We will never do any spin kicks or side kicks or stuff like crescent kicks. The grappling has to take precedent. We train some days in a t-shirt and shorts and some days in the gis. Some of the newer guys will enter amateur submission grappling or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournaments, if they come nearby and are available. I currently have about six or seven guys who are fighting professionally, mostly on the smaller circuits, but Omar Sheik, Theo Brooks and Rob Smith have fought and gotten to the level to get on Extreme Challenges and Omar and Rob are fighting on the King of the Cage. So those guys have gotten to the level that they are fighting on some of the bigger shows. The other guys are fighting in stuff like the SFC, when there was the SFC, and the Silverback Classic and here in Chicago, there is Total Combat and some other smaller regional events.

FCF: What is the name of the school?
AS: It's in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the name is Jiu-Jitsu and Freestyle Grappling.

FCF: How did you get involved in competing in NHB styled matches?
AS: It's just something that I got interested in when I saw the early UFCs. The first live mixed martial arts event that I attended was the second Battle of the Masters, which I think was in the fall or late 1995. I knew it was something that I wanted to do. I took my time getting ready for it. I finally jumped into it in May of 1996.

FCF: You have fought under a number of different organizations. Which different organizations have you fought under?
AS: I fought extensively for Extreme Challenge. I fought fairly extensively, for about two years, for Pancrase in Japan, twice for the IVC [International Valetudo Championships], once for World Extreme Fighting. On a regular basis, I fought for the SFC quite a few times, HooknShoot quite a few times, Danger Zone twice, UFC once, of course that's the biggest. My fight in the UFC would probably be the most significant. I'm fighting in King of the Cage later this month and that is a fairly big organization. That will be the first time that I will be fighting for King of the Cage later this month.

FCF: Do you know who your opponent is at King of the Cage?
AS: Well, maybe you can help me out with his name. He's from California, his name is Bettis Monsouri. I may pronounce it wrong and I'm sorry. I don't know much about him. I know that he's a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu stylist who has been working on his boxing. It's a fight that's under 190lbs, which I'm fine with. I'm just looking forward to fighting for that organization. It's the first time that King of the Cage is coming out of California. It's King of the Cage 6, I believe. It's at Mount Pleasant, Michigan and it is weird, it is on a Wednesday night. Sometimes the casino wants it on a night that they don't have a full casino. Their goal is to bring in gamblers. I'm looking forward to that fight. I might have a fight in HooknShoot on the 18th, but that's up in the air. I don't have any commitments in December, but I think that I have two in January.

FCF: Can you tell us about those two?
AS: Yeah, one will be for, what the first show was called, the Striker's Union Challenge, but the name might be a little different by the time they get to January. That's the show that was a partnership between Bryan Madden, who passed away last week, and Jermaine Andre, the fighter from that area. They did one show in a partnership, but Jermaine is going to continue with that show, tweak it, and try to keep it going on his own or with a partner. SFC is done, but I told Jermaine last night that I'll fight for that organization because I just want to support all my friends down there in the southern part of Illinois and Jermaine is one of my good friends. We fought twice and we went to Hawaii together. I want to see his show do good. And I have something else in January, but right now I can't remember. [laughs]

FCF: All of these organizations have different rules, some are slightly different, some are drastically different. Which organization's rules do you prefer?
AS: I prefer fairly liberal true NHB rules, maybe not as extreme as the IVC in Brazil, even though I fought for them twice. Maybe that's a little too extreme for audiences in the American public. I know there are a couple rule variations that I can't think of off the top of my head at the moment, but the no-holds barred rules of Extreme Challenge, the UFC and the World Extreme Fighting, in that ballpark is what I prefer. I fight quite often that are not quite that liberal or stuff that one might consider Shootfighting, but it's the events that are close to true no-holds barred fighting that I like.

FCF: The night before the Ironheart Crown, you helped referee another event. Tell us about the special situation surrounding that.
AS: I refereed for what will be the last SFC show. SFC stands for Submission Fighting Championship. It was the last show because the promoter passed away last week, that was Bryan Madden, who I knew very well. They decided to go on with the show, probably because of the money that they committed to the show, the plane tickets for some of the fighters, the advertising dollars, so they went through with the show and I refereed for the show.

FCF: This is going to be your 80th fight. Compare how you have evolved from the first day that you competed in NHB up to today?
AS: Well, I can answer that one because recently I have had a collection of old fight tapes that I put together and sold and my guys were telling me how I evolved. I was talking to someone on the phone as I was driving here and they were surprised to see in one of my early fights in 1996, I was trying a bent arm bar [key lock] when the guy had me in his guard. [laughs] That one will haunt me forever. I'm in the guy's guard and trying the bent arm bar and that's something that nowadays I would scold one of my intermediate students and kindly show one of my new students why that isn't going to work, but there it is on tape. I think it was my second professional mixed martial arts fight in August of 1996. I was pretty much just a ground and pound guy with certain submissions from the top. My game has evolved, even though I'm not known for pulling off a lot of great submissions from the bottom, I have done some and that's improved. I don't normally end up on the bottom. I guess that's why I can do okay without having such a great game from the bottom. But my striking has improved a lot. Those people that have seen my fights in the early '96 and '97 can see that my striking has improved a lot since then.

FCF: What are some of the more notable things that you have learned while gaining all of this experience?
AS: On a technical aspect, not only for myself, but for everybody, you got to be well versed in ground and standing and be able to do different things from a lot of different positions. You can't be one dimensional. From a personal stand point, I think that for as many tough guys that you may run into at bars, or tough guys at a dojo, there is still not that much guys that will actually get up in front of one hundred people or fourteen thousand people in a ring or a cage, let the dice roll and give it their best shot.

FCF: What do you hope to achieve in NHB? Are you looking to gain a title under a particular organization?
AS: Actually, now I don't have any title goals anymore. I mean, I want to win this one tonight, but I don't really have any title goals anymore. You probably hear a lot of people say I want to fight for this or that organization, I've pretty fought for everybody, with a few exceptions. I fought once for the UFC, and I fought once for World Extreme Fighting, and now I fighting for King of the Cage. I fought for Pancrase and Kingdom [primarily a Professional Wrestling organization] in Japan. I'd say that I have a reality goal and a high goal. As far as a reality goal, I'd like to fight at least one more time in the UFC and I'd like to fight for Shooto. So if Shooto is listening, I'd really like to fight for Shooto because they have a weight class that is great for me. I think that I would be very effective in their 187.5 lbs weight class. It's a real nice weight class for me. I don't have to cut any weight for that weight class or just a little bit. I have been going down to 175lbs or 170lbs at times, under 200lbs sometimes. The weight factor or the strength factor doesn't bother me too much when I'm fighting under 200lbs, but it's the height of those guys that bother me. Not bother me like me being pissed off by the height of those guys, but it is a disadvantage that I have trouble with, if the fighter knows how to use it. What I think is a truly attainable goal is that I would like to fight for the UFC once or twice more and I'd like to fight for Shooto. On a high-end goal, it would be Pride, but I also don't think that I will be fighting that much longer. I'm actually very old for this, especially fighting this active. I'll be 37 years old next month and most people are surprised by that. I was talking to someone just yesterday that thought I was 24 or 25, I guess I look younger with the blonde hair, instead of when I have my head shaved. Even people that read about me, they don't think that I'm 36, going on 37, but I don't think that I will be fighting that much more.

FCF: How much longer are you planning on fighting? A couple more years, until you hit 40 years old, or when your body starts giving out?
AS: No, my body feels fine. I don't want to get to the point where my body says stop because if you get to that point, you went too far. Recently I have been flirting with the idea of going until I reach 100 fights and after tonight I will hopefully have nineteen more to go. And given the schedule that I put up in the last couple of years. If I do go for that 100th fight, I'll get there in about a year. So maybe I'll just fight for the year 2000 or 2001.

FCF: Are you just a professional martial arts instructor or do you still have to hold down a regular job?
AS: Well, I moonlight as a bouncer at an exotic dance club, but my day job is I'm a fighter. I think of my day job as a fighter because I do most of my training on my own, my running, my lifting, and my kickboxing workouts. On weekends, I do shows, which is what I actually get paid for and my night job is as an instructor and I moonlight as a bouncer.

FCF: Is there anything else that you want to add?
AS: I want to add that I hope to win tonight [Note: Serrano won the Ironheart Crown Middleweight title] and I am dedicating my wins and this championship to Bryan Madden, my friend who passed away last week.

FCF: Thanks Adrian.
AS: Thank you.