For Ode Osbourne, it all began with a chance thunderstorm.
As a freshman at Dwyer in 2007, Osbourne was out at football practice when lightning forced the team off the field. Instead of sending the players home early, the freshman coach moved practice indoors and had the players wrestle against each other.
Osbourne, who had never wrestled before, proved a quick study. After in impressive debut, the coaches convinced Osbourne to come out for the wrestling team in the winter.
Nine years later, Osbourne has turned that seemingly fated experience into a blossoming mixed martial arts career, and on Friday night, he’ll compete in his first televised fight. The 135-pounder will face Antonio Sanchez at RFA 39 in Hammond, Ind., which will be broadcast on AXS TV.
While his wrestling career began nearly a decade ago, Osbourne’s MMA career is still relatively new. A three-time high school state finalist, Osbourne enrolled at Wisconsin’s Carroll University, where his high school coach Ben Tomes had just accepted a position.
After reaching nationals as a freshman, Osbourne hit a bump in the road, as the wrestling program was shut down the ensuing year. Despite the move, Osbourne elected to stay in Waukesha, joining Tomes at a local MMA gym.
The former Dwyer star helped as a trainer for a few months, before another chance occurrence threw him in the ring. One of the gym’s fighters was preparing for an upcoming bout when the head trainer Reese Shaner asked Osbourne if he could spar with him during a practice session, something Osbourne had never done before.
“I got into the cage and the first thing he did was throw a head kick at me,” Osbourne said. “I’ve never had that feeling, being kicked in the face. I feel like something inside me was unleashed and I picked him up and slammed him down.”
“Reese said, ‘Oh my god. You’ve got natural abilities.'”
Soon after, Osbourne dove full into MMA with Shaner and Tomes helping train him. The lightning-quick bantamweight dominated from the get-go, winning his first five amateur bouts. Osbourne’s instant success soon made it difficult to book amateur fights, so he elected to turn pro slightly ahead of schedule.
After winning his debut, tragedy struck as Shaner was killed in a motorcycle accident just two weeks before Osbourne’s second fight.
“It was a tragic thing to happen,” said Osbourne.
Osbourne fought in Shaner’s memory, defeating his opponent in just two minutes via TKO.
“It was a great feeling because Reese [Shaner] was so well-known and respected by fighters,” said Osbourne.
Osbourne, who trains out of Roufusport, has continued the momentum. Nicknamed “The Jamaican Sensation,” he won his ensuing fight to improve to 3-0 as a professional fighter.
“I’m getting a much better feel for MMA as a sport,” Osbourne said. “I feel like my skill set has gone through the roof since my last fight. My style is very entertaining and dangerous. I’m very unpredictable. I like ‘popping off.’ I always take the first punch [in a fight] and then I pop off.”
Despite the increased media attention with Friday’s fight, Osbourne says he’s not nervous. Instead, he hopes to use it as a stepping stone in what has the makings of a promising career.
“My goals are to hopefully get a title shot for this league, win the belt and hopefully get a call from the UFC.”
wdusenbury@sunsentinel.com / @dusereport
