Nonverbal until she was six, as a child Serena DeJesus suffered a series of misdiagnoses, and was prescribed unhelpful psychotropic drugs. At one point she threw a bully off a 16′ jungle gym and was expelled from school. At 13 she was finally diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Now, at 27, ‘The Southpaw Outlaw’ makes her Invicta FC debut vs. Taneisha Tennant on Friday.
Fighting is tough. Fighting with autism is tougher. Just the light, noise, and heat of the walkout can be a fight.
It’s like overwhelming your computer with 5,000 different commands, said DeJesus to John Morgan for MMA Junkie. Your computer is like, ‘$#!@, what do I do?’
When I was diagnosed with autism, it was like, ‘Oh, I didn’t even need any damn fixing to begin with. That was a total waste of my time, energy, emotions, and it hurt me a lot,’ recalled DeJesus.
From 13-20 she learned coping skills, and started training in Muay Thai and BJJ while attending Montgomery County Community College, and eventually quit college to focus on combat sports. In 2014 she started fighting amateur MMA, going 5-2, before turning pro last year with a win.
A fan of Roxanne Modafferi, DeJesus reached out and asked if she could train alongside ‘The Happy Warrior’ at John Wood‘s Syndicate MMA. The answer was yes, and the two bonded.
Between our love of anime and nerdy things and fighting, we just became best friends, said DeJesus. I just really want to be that good, influential figure that’s like, ‘Hey, she’s autistic, and she’s doing things.’ We live in a society now where we know what autism is. It’s different than when I first got diagnosed. Back then, nobody knew what it was. But I want to show that autism is not portrayed by the stereotypes – that you’re either a savant, like you see on television, or you’re a kid or adult banging your head against the wall. That’s the kind of stuff I’m trying to show people – everyday people like our neurotypical peers, meaning people without autism, but I also want to show other people who may be discouraged because of said stereotypes and other things that they can do what they want, too.”
Invicta FC 38 streams live on UFC Fight Pass from Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas. Vanessa Porto defends her Invicta FC flyweight title vs. Karina Rodríguez in the main event, and in the co-main, Kanako Murata and Emily Ducote fight for the vacant Invicta FC strawweight title.
