If there's a UFC or Strike force event happening, Cassie Wiseman is watching it and working non-stop in front of two computers and a flat-screen TV.
“I'm tweeting each round, but at the same time, writing my post-fight analysis,” the St. John's resident says.
Wiseman is a mixed martial arts expert for MMA Crossfire and Women's Fight Club, a pair of canada.com fighting blogs.
She also discusses the increasingly popular sport on MMA Crossfire's weekly program on PW24/7, an internet radio station dedicated to wrestling.
It's unique enough for someone in St. John's to provide analysis and colour on mixed martial arts for a national news organization and an internet radio station out of Los Angeles.
But there are other factors that make Wiseman's doing so even more unique.
She grew up in Robert’s Arm, a small town not known as a hotbed of mixed martial arts.
She's also a former youth pastor.
Wiseman got interested in mixed martial arts while teaching English in Korea, where she earned black belts in Taekwondo, Hapkido, and Muay Thai kickboxing.
A few years ago while living in Toronto, she met Kenai Andrews, the guy now behind the MMA Crossfire blog for PostMedia News.
They became fast friends through a mutual interest in fighting. After she returned to Korea, he enlisted her to contribute to the site.
It started with pre-fight predictions and has evolved quickly to include the live-blogging on Twitter, post-fight analysis for MMA Crossfire and the Sunday afternoon internet radio show.
Wiseman admits receiving mixed feedback about her work, but she doesn't mind as long as it gets people talking about mixed martial arts.
‘This is all happening really fast’
“I've had some bloggers write me back and say 'We really enjoyed your predictions. It was great to hear about this before the fight and have some background.' Like everything, you're going to have people who read the predictions and the analysis after and they're going to say they don't agree with it,” Wiseman says
Wiseman's love of the sport is readily apparent when talking to her. While enjoying what she's doing, she has no idea where it will lead.
“If you had asked me a year-and-a-half ago would I be here with you right now, I would say that's way out there,” Wiseman says.
“This is all happening really fast.”
She would like her commentary to help people understand women are interested in mixed martial arts, too.
“It's not only a men type of sport,” she points out.
Wiseman would also like to help naysayers view the sport differently, perhaps even as she does.
She appreciates and admires the hard work and skill of the fighters.
“It's like an art form for me,” Wiseman says. “Having a background of my own I can appreciate it for what it is instead of what some people call it, brutality. I appreciate it.”
sbartlett@thetelegram.com
Twitter: bartlett_steve
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You have no right to question anyone's IQ when you present such narrowminded, ignorant opinions such as this.