College student fights, promotes MMA on campus
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by Oh No Romo
All across the United States and the rest of the world, the sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) has grown in terms of popularity at a rapid pace. The popularity of MMA can be felt right here in the state of Iowa, especially at Wartburg College.
Sophomore Andy Nessan has been training in MMA (or Ultimate Fighting as it is sometimes called) for over a year now. The Dubuque-native has one amateur and one professional bout to his credit. He trains at the Dubuque MMA Academy.
“I’m more of a freestyle fighter,” Nessan said. “I’m pretty good at Jiu-Jitsu and more of a brawler.”
On Friday Oct. 13, Nessan made his professional MMA debut, at the 185 lbs. (Middleweight) bout, for Iowa Challenge 45. Nessan was going to hold off fighting until winter time, but an opportunity came up.
“My plan was just to train until this winter, until I fought again,” Nessan said. “But the opponent for main event for this fight backed out and nobody picked up the fight against this guy, so they raised the pay to 400 and so I took it. So I ended up for my second fight ever going against a professional at the Iowa Challenge.”
Nessan lost the fight in the first round, via a submission. His opponent was Jesse Sanders from Oskaloosa. Part of the reason why is because Nessan is a Welterweight (170 lbs.) by nature and his opponent Sanders is a natural 185.
“I hate fighting at 185,” Nessan said. “I’m a decent-size 170 and a really small 185. Those guys are cutting down and I’m just trying to pack on whatever I can.”
Sanders is an experienced pro and have a professional MMA record of 14-3. He has fought plenty of times in and around the state of Iowa.
“I got rocked right off the first punch, I hit the ground and he jumped on,” Nessan said. “I tried to pull him into my guard and I ended up leaving my arm out and he put me in a key lock.”
The event itself, took place in Oskaloosa -- a place where fight events don’t happen very often.
“It was a pretty tight venue,” Nessan said. “It was a barn with a bunch of dirt,” he joked.
Nessan loves fighting in MMA and considers the experience to be awesome.
“Walking up to the cage, you just get a huge adrenaline rush,” Nessan said. “So I go in there, run around and get a feel for it, go to my corner and wait for the other guy to come in. It’s extremely exhilarating, I love it.”
Nessan’s a communication arts major and hopes to one day run his own MMA promotion in the state of Iowa.
He became interested in MMA when he saw the popular reality show, ‘The Ultimate Fighter’.
“It’s kind of embarrassing, I actually started to get back into the WWE for a week,” Nessan said. “It was after that, that I saw the UFC on Spike TV and a couple of months later, ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ made its debut. I’d watch it and since then, I watch it all the time and then I got the opportunity to start training.”
Nessan’s big project right now is to get his group, Wartburg Mixed Martial Arts, to be officially recognized by Student Life. They were recognized last year, but at the time, they were called Wartburg Knights Defense and Mixed Martial Arts. It’s an issue that Nessan is taking up.
“We haven’t completely gotten set up yet and I’m working with student life,” Nessan said.
Nessan makes it clear that you don’t have to be a Tito Ortiz or a Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson (who is the UFC Light Heavyweight champion) to get into fighting.
“With the group, you don’t have to have experience or need to fight, you can just come and train,” Nessan said. “It’s great for self defense and real life stuff.”
Nessan recommends going for a takedown and snapping their arm off in an arm bar, a natural response by a fighter.
