The sensei is challenging the student.

In a big shakeup to the Santa Barbara City Council contest, martial arts teacher and dojo master Tony Becerra has pulled papers to challenge incumbent Oscar Gutierrez in District 3.

Becerra taught Gutierrez forms of karate decades ago, but he has not been impressed with what he describes as the incumbent’s lack action on the City Council.

“Sometimes we shift gears and actions, and we lose sight of what the main goal was,” Becerra said. “I feel like my focus on the community, the Westside first. I grew up riding my bike across the town, up and down State Street.”

Becerra, 57, has taught generations of families karate and martial arts from his dojo on the Westside, and prior to that on State Street.

NFL player Alex Mack, former UFC champion Chuck Liddell, and countless Santa Barbara and South Coast residents have trained under Becerra at The Academy of Koei-Kan Karate of Santa Barbara, a business he owns.

He grew up on the Westside, was born in a house on Figueroa Street, and graduated from McKinley Elementary, La Cumbre Junior High School and Santa Barbara High School.

Becerra is firmly planted in the community, serving as president of the Ben Page Youth Center. He is also still active as a coach and martial artist; he’s a sixth degree black belt.

His students regularly take home trophies at weekend tournaments.

He opened his business 28 years ago. Becerra is a renter, who said he and his wife, Kimberlee, were evicted from their home during the COVID-19 pandemic. He moved to Buellton and has come back to the Westside to run for office in the community where he grew up.

Becerra taught wresting for 21 years.

“Everything I do is for kids,” he said. “Those kids walk by and they say, ‘Hey coach!’ They believe in me, they always tell me how much of an impact I have had on their lives.”

Like his opponent, Becerra served as a bouncer downtown in his younger years, fully capable of physically disarming a tense situation.

But does he have the office to unseat an incumbent?

Becerra said he’s still pulling together his team. Although he is a registered Republican, Becerra says he approaches issues in a nonpartisan way. (Gutierrez is a Democrat and member of the Santa Barbara County Democratic Central Committee.)

People are conservative, liberal and moderate in his district, he said, and he plans to represent them all.

He previously supported Cathy Murillo for mayor, and even Oscar Gutierrez in his first bid for City Council.

“When I represent the Westside, it will be for the community, and what they want, not what I want,” Becerra said.

Among his priorities are to increase lighting on the Westside, and support businesses along San Andres Street and other parts of the Westside.

He said he is still learning about the issue of rent control, and whether he would support or oppose it. In an interview with Noozhawk, he came across sympathetic to renters.

“Am I for affordable housing in Santa Barbara? Heck yeah,” he said.

If elected, he said, he wants to encourage opportunities for people to own homes.

“I like that idea instead of just building massive amounts of apartments,” Becerra said.

One of his adult students just purchased a home in Lompoc, he said, but own a business on the Eastside.

He said people of Santa Barbara can’t afford big rent increases every year.

“I know I live on a tight budget, so we try to make every dollar count,” he said. “Raising the rent every year, that’s crazy.”

Becerra is holding a signature-gathering party on Thursday. He plans to have a taco truck on site.

“Win or lose, there’s going to be some positive change,” Becerra said. “I want to be on the winning side, but I want to see the Westside move forward.”

Gutierrez was elected in 2018 in a special election, and then re-elected in 2020, although he did not have an opponent in that contest.

In District 1 on the Eastside, incumbent Alejandra Gutierrez faces a challenge from Wendy Santamaria, who is endorsed by the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party.

Jett Black-Maertz, who announced last year that she was running for the seat, suspended her campaign on Monday.

Mike Jordan, councilman for District 2, is running for re-election, but so far has no opponent.