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'Ultimate Fighter' gets Long Island accent

BY HANK WINNICKI | Newsday Staff Writer

July 13, 2006

Don't call it a comeback, even if that's what they're calling it. Matt Serra hasn't gone anywhere. He's been beating up people for years.

The cast for season four of Spike TV's "The Ultimate Fighter" reality series was announced Wednesday night and it has a distinctly Long Island flavor. Serra, from East Meadow, is competing as a welterweight, and one of his top students -- Bay Shore's Pete Sell -- will be in the middleweight division.

Previous seasons were comprised of up-and-coming fighters who had never been tested in the UFC's octagon. Some wilted while others rose to the occasion. The new twist is a cast of former UFC fighters who, for one reason or another, never had their title shot. The winner of the show, which premieres Aug. 17, gets to fight for the belt.

"They told me the gist of the show," Serra says, "and I said I'd love to do it. The winner gets a $100,000 contract, so of course I'm going to go for it."

Serra is 4-4 in UFC bouts with an aggressive, attacking style that never fails to entertain. Last June, he lost a three-round decision to Karo Parisyan but came close to knocking him out in the first round.

Serra, the first American black belt under Renzo Gracie, is also well-known for his two Brazilian Jiu Jitsu academies one in East Meadow and the other in Huntington. He runs the schools with his brother Nick, who also fought in the UFC. Season two's Luke Cummo (New Hyde Park), who lost a three-round decision Wednesday to Jonathan Goulet, gives the school four fighters with UFC experience. Serra also has a gold medal from the Pan Am games on his resume.

The reality series has brought a flood of new fans to the UFC. But it probably hasn't been easy for veteran fighters to sit back and watch the reality show fighters get all the attention.

"There are other guys out there who are more popular than myself because of the show," Serra says. "I saw this as an opportunity to show my skills. And if I do well, it will help my schools."

"I don't want to take anything away from the other reality show guys," Sell says. "But I'll be walking down the Las Vegas strip, and all the fans flock to them. I got to the UFC the hard way. Some guys on the show weren't that good. They could fight a little, but their heart wasn't in it. They just wanted to be on TV."

The series has been a way for fans to see what the fighters are like outside the octagon. It's also a good look at how hard they have to train to compete at this level. But the show forces fighters to be trapped in a house unable to contact the outside world. That's enough to break even the toughest guys.

"I just turned 32," Serra says, "and I had to celebrate it in the house with a bunch of monsters. But I made the best of it. The guys in the house were really focused."

The other fighters in the house are middleweights Patrick Cote, Edwin Dewees, Travis Lutter, Charles McCarthy, Gideon Ray, Jorge Rivera, Scott Smith and welterweights Mikey Burnett, Shonie Carter, Rich Clementi, Jeremy Jackson, Chris Lytle, Pete Spratt and Din Thomas.

"I feel like I did a bid," Sell says. "I feel like I did some jail time. It was like country club jail time. But it makes you think about all the time you waste watching TV and playing video games. Coming home from this, I have a different outlook on life."

Sell got his first shot in UFC 51 against another Long Islander, Phil Baroni.

"That was my career-changing moment," the 23-year-old said. "I took the fight on short notice and I beat him."

But Sell suffered a setback against season one reality star Nate Quarry. Sell lost the fight by TKO after just 42 seconds of the first round.

"The Nate fight was a premature stoppage," Sell says. "It is what it is. He caught me with a shot. It was one of those flash knockdowns. My butt hit the floor and I saw the other punch coming and I knew I had to eat it. I was okay, but the ref stopped the fight."

Serra feels it's a loss Sell will overcome.

"Pete's tough as nails," Serra says. "For every bad break, a new door opens up. And this one opened for him."

Opening doors is something Sell knows about. On weekends, he is a bouncer at some popular L.I. clubs such as Posh in the Garden City Hotel.

"I have to work until I make enough money in this sport," Sell says. "It'd be great to just train without all the distractions."

Sell is often referred to by his nickname "Drago," which he picked up because, you guessed it, he looks like Dolph Lundgren's character from Rocky IV. "I've had this nickname since I was 14 years old. I used to hate it, but eventually it stuck. Now people chant it at my fights."

Sell went to St. John the Baptist High School in West Islip, but admits he was a bit of a troublemaker back then. But that was before he found Serra jiu jitsu.

"Matt showed me the right way," Sell says. "And look at me now."