The Milwaukee Mauler
Fighter Adrian Serrano is actually really nice. Just don’t tell him his hometown isn’t friendly—or you’re in trouble.
By Jeanette Hurt
ADRIAN SERRANO IS ONE OF MILWAUKEE’S ORIGINAL TOUGH GUYS. At 44, he’s tackled—and destroyed—men half his age. He has survived 120 professional mixed martial arts fi ghts, twice won the Extreme Challenge Championship, and is currently preparing for his last two professional fi ghts. “I am 44 years old and my last opponent just turned 19,” Serrano says. “I beat him in a little over a minute.”
No surprise, given his experience level. “I’ve been doing judo and wrestling all my life,” he says. As he got older, he started studying other martial arts disciplines, including sambo, a combat sport and martial art combination developed in the former U.S.S.R. Sambo and judo competitions took Serrano around the world. Then he became an ultimate fi ghter, which also took him globe-trotting.
Now, he trains the next generation of ultimate fi ghters at Adrian Serrano Combat Sports Gym and prepares for his own fi ghts.
But he makes time to enjoy Milwaukee. Summertime means two things to Serrano: Brewers baseball and Summerfest. “I am a big Brewers fan, and this is my third season that I am a season ticket holder,” Serrano says. “Also, one of my favorite things to do is Summerfest. I don’t go for any particular act. I just look at my calendar at work and see when I can go.”
Going to the music festival wasn’t always a recreational activity for him, though. “I worked as a security guard at Summerfest for about 10 years. It was one of those things where I mixed my profession with a Milwaukee highlight pretty well.”
For other Milwaukee highlights, Serrano kicks back in his neighborhood, the fashionable East Side. “My neighborhood bar is the BBC (414-272-7263),” Serrano says. “I like Milwaukee Street, where I like to go to Kenadee’s (kenadees.com) and Eve (evebar.com),” he says.
Though his fi ghting career has taken him across the globe, Serrano says he always likes returning home for the kindness and good nature of its residents.
“And people who are visiting Milwaukee tell me the same thing,” he says. “They always say that people in Milwaukee are very friendly.”
