Celeb Mashup: Fabiano Scherner

Fabiano Scherner is a well known MMA fighter and Black Belt BJJ Heavyweight who fought in the UFC. He also worked as my Portland strip club bouncer. I met him in late 2011, when I started working at a Portland strip club that I am not interested in doxxing at this time. Scherner is from Brazil, but with his surname, giant physiognomy, and oddly shaped head, he is very obviously part of Brazil's German diaspora-- like Gisele Bundchen. I was always entertained to see such a giant human walking around in the workplace.

I never had romantic feelings for Fabiano, but I did appreciate certain aspects of being coworkers with him. He taught me how to choke someone out by using their collar, using one hand or with two hands. I also learned basic hand fighting techniques. I ended up enrolling in BJJ classes at a Gracie school where Fabiano trained, although I stuck to the women's classes where he was not present. He did advise me to take the accompanying yoga classes, and stressed the importance of yoga exercises for BJJ. I've taken BJJ classes off and on in a few different states, since my time working with Fabiano. I am too lazy to consistently go to lessons, but I do love grappling and learning new techniques. Sometimes I'll stop going to a school because I hate the misogynist vibes there, which are common in the MMA world, unfortunately.

2011 and 2012 was a time in Portland when prostitutes began colonizing and infiltrating strip clubs in vast numbers. Additionally, strip club owners were becoming much more relaxed on prostitute behaviors taking place within the clubs. Many Late Gen X and Early Millennial dancers in Portland were extremely upset about this change. Fabiano was often badgered by dancers to do more prostitution patrol. He would be asked to check on lap dances for inappropriate contact. He was relatively sluggish in the workplace, and I did find it entertaining to see him going around on his prostitution patrol.

I experienced a lot of sexual harassment from the male staff at the strip club where I worked with Fabiano. However, Fabiano was never one of the coworkers who sexually harassed me. He always treated me very respectfully. I'm not sure if I got Stockholmed by thinking that Fabiano is a respectable person, or if he really is a respectable person. I was so stressed out working at this particular club, that I made multiple crying phone calls to the Portland Women's Crisis Line in 2012. It bothers me that he surrounded himself with scumbags in the workplace who were his male coworkers-- including another BJJ fighter who trained with Fabiano and was the second bouncer. The club that I worked at with Fabiano was the first one that I ever called a labor lawyer about, in 2012. I still didn't understand what misclassification was, even after speaking with the labor lawyer, and didn't end up suing that club because it seemed too complicated and stressful to do. I would go another three years before getting the courage and education to file my first lawsuit against a strip club in 2015.

While Fabiano never sexually harassed me, I did see him slap the ass of another dancer with whom he had a playful and bawdy workplace friendship with. I have no idea how she really felt about his behavior, but she turned around and giggled after he did that. She was also a Latin American. He did this ass slap to her one day when he was walking me to my car at the end of the night, and I remember being disappointed in him for doing that, because I thought he was a family man in a committed relationship. Most of the time, I regarded Fabiano as a good person who was born into a shithole misogynist country, worked hard to become a BJJ star, came to the USA, and was only working in the strip club to make ends meet as an immigrant, in hopes of having a better life with his family. But, when I think if his crappy harassing male coworker friends or the manner in which he slapped a woman's ass in the workplace, I feel disillusioned.

The house fee at the club I worked at with Fabiano was much higher than any house fee that I had ever paid before. The owner's girlfriend was also a dancer there. She regularly bullied the other dancers. The owner had several dancer favorites who he financially supported, and he did things like pay for their dental procedures, or otherwise help them out financially. So, I was very upset about having to pay a higher house fee when I knew where my money was going. I didn't think it was fair that I also had to “tip” staff. To try to remedy my problem, I started having a longshoreman friend on strike walk me to my car, rather than Fabiano, so that Fabiano didn't expect me to tip him. I got in trouble for this after only a few times, and was subsequently told by management that I had to let Fabiano walk me to my car. I tipped him mostly because I could not have my own security walk me to my car for free, but I also felt a bit sorry for Fabiano's need for my money, his South American accent, and his kind demenour. I'm still torn about what kind of a person I think Fabiano is, because he is so nice, and yet he worked for that horrible place.

I love Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and enjoyed meeting the influx of BJJ artists who came to visit Fabiano. I am happy to have met him. I would feel sad if he died.