They lift your spirits, prompt you to think, make you feel grateful and inspire you to do more. They connect you to our community, shining a spotlight on what's good about our city. They're stories that are Uniquely Milwaukee.
Tucked away on North 76th Street in Milwaukee, below Blue’s Egg Cafe, is Roufusport Mixed Martial Arts Academy. Across two decades, it built a national and even global reputation in MMA circles for training champions. That attention became acutely local in October of 2025, when founder and Milwaukee native Jeffrey “Duke” Roufus died in his sleep.
“Duke Roufus, back in the day, 4 years old, got started in martial arts,” his friend and longtime business partner Scott Joffe recalled. “Next thing you know, he's a professional fighter. Next thing you know, he's one of the top MMA coaches in the world.”
That journey is even more remarkable when you consider Roufus’s initial stance on mixed martial arts, which he called “barbarism” back in 1996 at the age of 26. Obviously, those feelings evolved to become not just tolerant of the sport, but an active participant with a laser focus on something bigger than simply breaking down your opponent.
“We have a great community at Roufusport, and martial arts in general provide that community to people,” Joffe said. “I pride myself on being a part of operating a place where people can come, they can feel safe, they can feel welcome.”
That environment pulled in many people over the years, including Sergio Pettis. Currently a member of the Professional Fighters League, he and his older brother Anthony — former UFC lightweight champion — found Roufusport at a time when they needed something that could help them through a difficult time: the death of their father in 2003.
Sergio was just 12 years old and Anthony around 19, and they were “just coming off a tragedy, trying to find a life and trying to find ourselves. … Our mom got us into taekwondo at a young age, (but) I feel like it almost got to a halt at that point. We got done competing and were just trying to figure out what’s next.
“Then my brother met Duke Roufus, and the world changed for us.”
In Roufus, the Pettis brothers found a coach. In Roufusport, they found a space that always opened the door to them.
As a freshman at Pius High School, Sergio wanted to get into a regular training schedule after school but had a significant problem to overcome. Reaching out to Roufus on Facebook, he laid out the dilemma.
“I'm like … ‘Would you mind if I come and train after I get out of school? I can't afford it right now, so I was wondering .. if we could figure out some sponsorship,’” Pettis recalled. “He's just like, ‘Hey man, come on through. The sponsorship is just you showing up every day and giving into the process. I just want you to train.’”
It was around the same age that current UFC fighter Christian Rodriguez started training at Roufusport. Like the Pettis brothers, he found a place that exceeded his expectations by a wide margin.
“The cool thing about Duke is that he would show us moves, but then he'd be like, ‘See, this is why it works,’” Rodriguez said. “And then sometimes after class, we'd sit on the desk and he had a big TV, watch his old videos. He had so much knowledge. If you asked him questions, he would come back with like three or four answers. He's like, ‘All right, this is why we do this.’”
The example Roufus set never left Rodriguez, who has followed his former teacher’s path from student to professional fighter to trainer working with kids as young as 4. The biggest thing he took away from Roufus’s approach?
“I think that gave me the patience I needed,” he said. “I think it's more just to show them that they should love the sport. Duke has so many quotes, so one of his favorite quotes is, ‘Having fun, getting it done.’ And that was all over his gym. He said that should be for everybody. It's like you shouldn't hate your job or your sport. You should be having fun.”
Those were far from the only words to live by that Roufus gave his students. They piled up to such a degree, they started calling them “Dukeisms,” which are all over the walls of Roufusport and even the t-shirts of the students as they train. When I was one of those students, the first one I noticed was, “I’m not here to be average.” It turns out everyone has their personal favorite.
“I'd say, ‘Whistle while I work,’” Sergio Pettis said. “He always used to preach that. Make training fun because things get super repetitive. And not only training, but life, you know? Life gets super repetitive, and if … the reps get the best of you, you don't start enjoying the sport. You don't start enjoying life.”
Roufus dedicated his own life to sharing those and other lessons with as many people as would listen. He also never turned his back on Milwaukee.
Longtime friend Michael Parker still trains at Roufusport, continuing a 15-year relationship with the academy. Shortly before his Muay Thai class began, Parker turned his thoughts back to a moment that left a mark about the sport he dedicates himself to and the place he calls home.
“I can distinctly remember being a kid, and seeing Rick (Roufus) and Duke fight on ESPN, and being like, ‘Those guys are from Milwaukee,’” he said. “Everyone was trying to be from somewhere else if they were from Milwaukee. They would claim somewhere else. [Rick and Duke] were like, ‘No, we're, we're from Milwaukee,’ and there is a pride that comes along with that.
“I mean, the dude literally tattooed ‘Milwaukee’ on his back … put Milwaukee on his back and then put it on the map as a destination for combat sports.”
Although the man who said them is gone, those Duke-isms on posters inside Roufusport remain. The black-and-yellow Roufusport banners countless students walk past while descending the stairs to the gym remain. The pictures of Roufus wearing his championship belt remain.
And, maybe most importantly, the training and the learning at Roufusport remain.
