I have a fencer using a sport weapon. Seeing as I'm also a fencer, I am at least proficient in the use of the small sword and sabre (far better than the average world population) but those skills would not be terribly useful. Most of fencing is about misdirection but when facing an enemy without guile who is immune to deceit, the most important thing is simply delivering fast and effective attacks as quickly as possible as often as possible for as long as possible.
For someone who's swung even a sport sword let me tell you: it isn't something you'll be doing for hours on end without training to that effect. Some hard fought foil bouts end with both parties gasping for air and sweating buckets and these last, at most, 9 minutes. Hell, the last tournament I was in my opponent and I (we have similar styles) ran the clock to the 7 minute mark and by the second break both of us were ready for it to end even though we regularly run for miles at a time together several times a week!