Jeremy Stephens Interview after UFC knock out
Written by Penny Buffington
Jeremy Stephens threw a devastating upper cut at UFC 91 COUTURE vs LESNAR that brought Rafael Dos Anjos crashing to the floor in a very dramatic fashion. The lightweight was so excited he ran face first with great velocity into the octagon cage bouncing off with force. The event was held Nov 15th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. After being awarded the Knockout of the Night award Jeremy’s mixed martial arts record stands at 14 wins and 3 losses. With that lose Dos Anjos record is now 11 wins with 3 losses.
Jeremy explains to MMAmania what went on in the locker room while he was waiting his turn to fight, “As usual: getting pumped up. Just going through my regular warm ups. Dancing, moving around, trying to relax, stay calm and just go out there and perform.”
The first round didn’t look so good for Jeremy, “He took me down. I really wasn’t expecting for him to take me down. He is really strong. I was trying to get back up, but he had a really, really tight jui juitsu. I couldn’t move. I’ve been working on getting up but he left no spaces. He did a good job holding me down. Once I was able to reverse, I made a mistake. He capitalized on it. But you know I’m not going to tap. I’ve got to much heart. I have too much on the line.”
The upper cut came 39 seconds into round 3 after Jeremy redeemed himself during round 2. Jeremy tells us how he felt, “Explosive as you could probably tell! I ran into the cage! I was just so hyped up. I have so much going on in my life and it was like I was reborn again. It felt really great.” As to the run in with the cage Jeremy explained, “It left me with a black eye.”
The life of a fighter includes traveling around the country to train with the best in the business, “I met up with Hermes Franca. I flew out to San Diego to Saulo Ribeiro’s gym. We trained with Diego Sanchez a little bit. Went up to Throwdown Elite and trained with Baret Yoshida – not with Baret but with his gym- War Machine. (Former UFC fighter) Moving around allot, then I went back to Davenport to finish up training and then I met Hermes a week before the fight out in Vegas.”
As far as taking time off to enjoy the win Jeremy tells us that isn’t his plan, “The first round I kicked him. It kind of messed up my foot. I’m going to take this week off then on Mon I am going to get right back into the gym. I expect to perform here very soon. Josh Near and Hermes Franca were both in my corner they are going to be fighting in Feb. I’m hoping to spend allot of time with those guys and train and fight maybe on the same card or afterwards.”
‘Lil Heathen” is the nickname given to Jeremy he says it comes from his mom, “My mother! When I was a little kid I was more of a wild man I guess. That is the only way she could describe me. I spent allot of time with her when I was younger. She defiantly made me the best.”
Jeremy attributes some of his success to where he was born, “515 (area code) that is my city: Des Moines Iowa. If you throw a dart in the middle of the United States it would actually land on Des Moines Iowa. That is why we say we have allot of heart because Des Moines Iowa is the heart of the United States.”
Stephens gave shout outs to Cindy at the end of the fight. He explained, “She is my girlfriend of a little bit over a year. Tuesday she flew into Vegas, that week that was our 1 year, and she is currently pregnant. She is a little bit over 4 months and here in 2 weeks we are going to get an ultra sound and find out what sex our baby is. She is a real big help she is always there for me and it was all work for our baby so I had to give her a shout out.”
Jeremy is managed by White Chocolate: http://whitecm.com/ White Chocolate Management. At1901 Harrison Street, Suite #208 Hollywood, FL 33020. Main phone: 954.921.1311
Audio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myiupo3K1l0
Alvin Cacdac Interview Fighting Strikeforce Nov 21
Written by Penny Buffington
Alvin Cacdac is set to fight Friday STRIKEFORCE DESTRUCTION at the HP Pavilion at San Jose Friday, November 21. Cacdac has a record of 4 wins and 4 losses. Win or lose the scale is about to tip. Alvin needs the win to further his career in the extremely talented world of mixed martial arts. Alvin tells MMAmania.com, “It’s coming up in San Hose. It’s against Jose Palacios He is a tough guy a good kick boxer so I’m probably going to take it to the ground hopefully end it with either a submission or ground and pound.” Jose Palacious record is 3 wins with 1 lose.
Alvin has prepared for his fight at a top notch gym. “I train at Nor Cal Fight Factory with little Dave (Dave Velasquez) over here in San Jose.”
Alvin only started training for mixed martial arts a short time ago, “Not that long, maybe 4 years. I was always into it in High School and throughout my life. A buddy of mine from work was like, o yeah I fight, I do MMA. I said alright cool. He got me in.”
Sometimes family support is hard to come by, “At first they didn’t support it because they were like you could get hurt. But you can get hurt at anything. I think they support it though.”
As always the life of a fighter is all time consuming, “I have to give up allot of my personal time, my free time. You have to be dedicated to it. The free time I do have, I spend it with family and my girlfriend.”
For this Fridays Strikeforce fight against Palacio- Cacdac has a game plan, “Allot of combinations, get him frustrated. Hopefully not let him get to much gap. I don’t want to get kicked or anything so hopefully just smother him and just give him hell.”
What keeps Alvin dedicated? “My family, my coaches, and myself of course.”
When asked what his nickname is and where it came from Alvin replied, “The Pilipino Phenom, I don’t know where I got it from. Other than I’m Pilipino and my last 2 fights I slammed 2 guys in the head and they were like you are crazy, you are a phenom, so they go Pilipino Phenom.”
If you would like to visit Alvin on the internet or sponsor him he can be reached through, “My manager, (http://www.hitemupfighter.com/ ) my coaches or my MySpace”: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=3781590
“I’m pretty sure MySpace is a big thing now.”
Alvin’s Hit Em Up web page:
http://www.hitemupfighter.com/ALVIN.html
I asked Alvin if he looks up to anyone in the sport and without hesitation he answered, “Yeah BJ Penn. I’ve been watching him ever since I was in high school. I was like o man this guy is sick.”
To his fans and future fans Alvin said, “Thanks for all your support. Hopefully I will be victorious and I hope to put on a show.”
Referee Steve Mazzagatti Interview
Written by Penny Buffington
When asked his thoughts on Brock Lesnars request that he not Ref for UFC 91 Couture VS Lesnar
“I have no idea how it came about. He has got a job to do. His management has got a job to do. I guess that he has got allot on his mind. These guys are professionals. They have got to go out there and fight to the best of their abilities and not have any weight on their shoulders. Obviously I was some weight on his shoulders or his management felt so and they decided to try and request that I not ref the fight. Personally I didn’t do anything. I was doing my job and that is what I get paid to do. Unfortunately it is not always the most popular thing. It’s easy to get out there in the ring and bounce around and look cool and be a referee but it’s tough when you have to make the calls. I had to do my job. I can understand he wants to go out there with no weight on his shoulders. Basically they requested the athletic commission choose another referee or not really choose another referee but I be taken off the list of available referees for that particular fight. Which is very common in boxing, it’s gone on, it happens all the time. I didn’t think I would have gotten the fight anyway but they did end up assigning another referee. But like I said I didn’t think I would have gotten the assignment anyway.”
How are Referees chosen for Events and matchups?
“We have a board of commissioners that work for the state of Nevada or whatever state we are talking about. I can pretty much say it’s all the states. They sit around at a round table meeting. It’s open to the public anybody can go to these meetings. They talk about upcoming fights. We have got this title fight and this title fight we are going to assign officials. We have got this referee and this referee and this referee available well, let’s go with X referee and they pick the referees like that. The same for the judges, the judges are assigned to the fights the same exact way. I think it’s pretty much the title fights the rest of the fights the executive director probably handles those. I’m not really sure. I’m not really involved in the politics of it but from what I understand that is how the process goes.”
How many events do you Ref per month?
I’m averaging a couple a month. I pretty much just stay in Nevada. I have a full time job. I am a fire fighter here in Los Vegas so I don’t want to take too much vacation away. If it doesn’t take any more then 3 or 4 hours to fly to and I get offered an assignment I’ll take it. Usually the commissioner of the state calls you up and says would you be interested in coming out and reffing one of our fights? I just turned down a show in Costa Rica but pretty much here in Nevada, anything that is going to be here in Nevada I referee, because this is my home state.”
If you wanted to be a full time ref is that possible?
Being a ref is not a full time job. We don’t make anything like the NFL guys do or the NBA guys do. It’s a little bit above a hobby. It’s always been a hobby. I’ve been involved in the fight game my whole life. When it came to: when I had kids and stuff, I said, wow I love this sport. How can I stay involved and not put so much time into it and I looked at officiating? Well it’s a thankless job. I’ve reffed probably three or four hundred fights for free. Allot of them amateur muay thai, armature boxing, armature grappling tournaments, whatever you could ref and you’re doing it just out of the love of the sport. Of course when the UFC legitimatized themselves and cleaned up the sport a little bit and tried to bring it mainstream they started promoting here in the state of Nevada. This is my hometown and I got the gig. That is one of the better paying official jobs but for the most part it’s not anything you could make a decent living at. Even if I could, being a firefighter was always a lifelong dream too. It would be awfully hard to walk away from that.”
Unlike the NFL guys and the NBA guys type of referees: they have a crew that travels with the show. Where with arm to arm combat generally the officials are in the states like N.Y. has a set of their referees, California has a set of their referees, New Jersey, Florida. Earlier on in 2003 and 4 we would travel around with the UFC as they did events because they didn’t have an infrastructure to support this sport. So they would ask us to go along. As time went along more and more state were building their own infrastructure. Their were armature fights and smaller pro shows where these guys are getting experience and they are building an interstructure for themselves. They are getting their referees they are getting their judges and these guys deserve to do the big shows too, you know, and you’re seeing it. Florida pretty much uses their own crew of guys. New Jersey pretty much has their own guys now. California has Herb and Josh and Big John and there are a half a dozen other fine referees that live in California so why should they pull me over to California or New Jersey or where ever. These guys pay their dues in the smaller shows I think they should have the opportunity to work the big ones too.”
“It isn’t an easy job to do. It’s easy to sit back on your lazy boy drinking a beer and second guess what you are going to do after watching a replay a half a dozen times when you are out there we have less than a split second to make these decisions. They come down and you got to make the call. That is what determines a good referee from not being a referee. Like I said, you can get in the ring and bounce around and look cool and not make any calls and probably do just fine, nobody will even notice. But, we are out there looking for fouls. That is what we get paid to do. What good is a referee who is not going to look for fouls and call the shots? That is when this job becomes hard, when you have to put your foot down. We don’t want to make these calls. Why did he do that? Right in the middle of a big old fight you got to stop and take a point from them. That is what we get paid to do and what good would we be if we didn’t make these calls
Do Refs attend school or take courses?
We study. We go to courses. I’ve got an up-coming doctors seminar I’m going to be going to with some of the finest trauma surgeons in the country. Talking about cuts; where is it dangerous, where should we be concerned about, because, the ref has the ability to affect a fight when a cut happens. Especially in this sport. If you’ve got a couple of guys laying some leather down on each other they are both pretty gassed but let’s say one got gassed more than the other and he happens to get cut. We have seen it in some big fights that I have let go and he gets cut and it is an insignificant cut, but the head tends to bleed an awful lot. It puts allot of blood out there and the fans don’t understand it. Because I go to these seminars and I understand what is dangerous and what is not. I let the fight go on and if I would have called a time out that could have given him time to recover a little bit, so he could come back and win the fight. I was sure the Dr was not going to stop the fight. There are a few areas involving the face area and the eye area primarily if the blood was going into the eyes we would be concerned and call in a Dr. We also attend grappling seminars that Big John puts on. We will bring in some jiu jitsu guys and we will talk about just what they are trying to accomplish so we understand what is going on, on the ground game.”
Being a professional tell us some things the fans aren’t aware of
“Allot of fans don’t really understand what the back of the head is. The definition of the back of the head is going up your spine and basically all the way to the top of your head with one inch to each side. We say targeting that area. If that area is targeted, not accidently the guy turns his head into it and it catches it or if he is a jui jitsu guy, he has got a full mount and he’s got his chest berried on the fighter and the fighter on the bottom has his face berried up in the guy’s chest. Well, he can’t see where he is hitting or which way this guys heads turning while he’s trying to soften him up to try to get him to roll off. We get allot of accidental fouls. We are looking at targeting fouls. Where you hit it and then, oh, there it is I’m going to hit it two more times. If you are hitting the ear you are good to go.”
“We tell these guys in the dressing room, we go and talk with them and we tell them what we expect. If you target that area, don’t get excited, because I will take a point away from you with no warning. If you grab the cage and it effects your positioning and effects your momentum in the fight we will take a point from you. No warning. There are some things you do that you just can’t warn a guy about. You know? We have already warned them in the back.”
“Another thing the fans don’t understand that is, after a foul has been committed, the fighter who commits the foul if they are in a dominant position, we take that position away from them through a stand up, through a neutral position . If he is in a passive position say he is getting grounded and pounded and he reaches up and pokes the guy in the eye of the guy who is on top of him beating the crap out of him then we take appoint from him while the fight is still going. We are not going to stop that fight. We are going to take a point from him right away.”
“My goal as a referee is to completely stay out the picture. To completely stay out of the fight unless I am absolutely needed to affect the fight. If I’m needed for a stand up, if I’m needed to break them off the cage. I keep my ass out of the TV unless I need to because these guys are performing. That is what the fans came to see that is what they came to hear.”
Any regrets on past fight decisions?
I take my job serious. I study hard. I know the rules without even having to think about them. I don’t have any regrets of bad calls I have made. I have missed some things. I can’t call something that I don’t see. For instance if somebody gets poked in the eye and if I don’t see it I can’t call it that way. I can’t assume. Guys are getting kicked in the groin. Guys are getting poked in the eye. I can’t assume guys are getting head butted unless I actually see it. I’ve got o call it the way I see it. If I have no indication it was an eye poke and then boom the guy goes down, I got to call the fight, He is down the guy is jumping on top of him beating the crap out of him. I have got o stop the fight I can’t go Oh shit, now he is telling me he got poked in the eye. I can’t go back and change my call. So those things I feel bad about.”
“The sport is evolving so fast and every show that I do I just can’t imagine it getting better then the last show but it always does.
Audio interview:Kenny Florian Interview Fighting Joe "Daddy" Nov 15th
Written By Penny Buffington
At UFC 87 on August 9, 2008 Kenny “Flo” Florian defeated Roger Huerta by unanimous decision. Next up will be Joe Stevenson at UFC 91 on November 15th. At the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Kenny told MMAmania in an exclusive interview, “I will be fighting Joe Stevenson. I’m really excited. Joe Stevenson is a phenomenal opponent, very dangerous opponent, one of the best in the world out there as a lightweight. He is in my way of advancing up the ladder even more. I want to fight the best guys. Joe Stevenson is not only a nice guy and a very experienced opponent, he is one of the best out there and I’m looking forward to the challenge. I know I’m going to have my hands full.”
Kenny’s last fight against Roger Huerta left Huerta looking like a beaten man in deed. The evidence was left in the form of bruises in the eye area of Rogers face. His spirit looked broken as well. When asked what was next after the fight at the Ultimate Fighting Championship post press conference a truly crushed looking Roger hung his head and answered, “I don’t know.”
Kenny gave MMamania his thoughts on the fight, “I feel that I did some good things over all. I defiantly felt I beat him in all aspects. I out grappled him. I out wrestled him and out struck him. I think I was able to win the fight without really any problems. I didn’t really get hit at all. It was kind of a nice clean fight.” He went on to explain, “There are allot of little things I felt I should have improved and I’m trying my best to improve on them now in my training preparations for my next fight. Over all it was a decent performance but I was hoping to do better. Of course allot of credit goes to Roger for being a tough opponent. Great learning experience you know any time you can learn from a win you know it’s a good thing.”
Extreme dedication and a whole lot of hard work is the life of a fighter. Kenny trains at his own gym he owns with his brother in Brookline Ma. The gym is named Florian Martial Arts Center. He also trains at F-15 Training Center with Peter Welch his boxing coach. His Muay Thai and MMA Coach is Mark DellaGrotte. Kenny says, “I couldn’t ask for a better training camp or better training over all.”
Training and fighting keep Kenny busy. He also finds time to run the gym with his brother. That’s not all. While doing the interview with MMAmania via the phone Kenny explained, “I am actually on my way home from ESPN. I was in Connecticut filming MMA Live which is a show we do every week on ESPN.com. It’s a great show. It’s great to have the World Wide Leader in Sports covering mixed martial arts the way that they have.”
Florian will be ready for his fight on Nov 15. He tells MMAmania, “I train 6 days a week, 2 times a day. Whether I’m training for a fight or not. I’m always training 6 days a week 2 times every single day. It’s not crazy all the time. It’s not like I am now preparing for Joe Stevenson but its consistent training all the time. I think that is the key for me to be able to improve and get better and to learn new things, also to consistently get better with your conditioning and technical skills. So there is no off season for me. If anything people try to kick me out of the gym.”
To his fans Kenny says, “I just want to thank them so much for their support. Especially my local fans in Boston. I’ve been getting allot of love and support lately from all over the place that send me emails. I want to thank the troops as well. The military and everything that they do for us, I’m just a huge fan. I find allot of inspiration in what they do. I’m just very grateful for the support. Even if they are not a supporter of Kenny Florian, if they are a supporter of the sport it’s great for us. I hope to get some more fans in the future.”
You can see the match up live on PPV. While watching it may be nice to know Kenny is very appreciative to be a part of this incredible sport. He seems to truly love all aspect of mixed martial arts. He explained, “The fighting and training, I really do love the most. I really enjoy going out there and competing against all the great fighters out there in the UFC. The UFC has always treated me so well. I really enjoy that aspect. I really love teaching as well though. I really do. I love teaching and analyzing fights. I’ve been really blessed, I think, in my life and in my career at this point. I feel like everything I do I truly enjoy, I’m truly passionate about, and it all revolves around mixed martial arts. Something that really moves me every day I wake up with a smile on my face. I think it’s a gift any time you can love what you do for work. I truly consider it a gift.”
If you would like to hear the audio from this interview you will find it on the home page of http://www.kennyflorian.com/ October 22, 2008 -Kenny Previews his UFC 91 Fight Against Stevenson-Listen to Interview. Simply click the link on his home page.
Dragon crest.
Urijah Faber says, “I think I’m going to beat him up.”
Written by Penny Buffington
Interview with Urijah Faber
WEC® FABER VS BROWN will be shown live on Versus, Nov 5th 8:00 PM ET.
Urijah Faber has become the face of the WEC. His record, fighting style, and personality have thrust him to the front of the MMA scene. Urijah’s fighting record is 21 wins with 1 lose back in 2005 to UFC lightweight fighter Tyson Griffin.
This is how Urijah explained to me how he thinks the fight will go, “The fight is with Mike Brown. He is
a really tough guy. He is 19 and 4 out of American Top Team. He fought his last fights in Japan and he has fought before in Russia a little bit. He is tough. He is well rounded and well I think I’m going to beat him up.”
Fans may be very interested to know you can go to: http://www.urijahfaber.com/ or http://energy.nofear.com/ and enter your email address. No Fear Energy Drink and VERSUS is giving
fans the chance to win, a VIP trip to Sacramento, to see Urijah Faber and his Ultimate Fitness gym for an exclusive training session with Urijah. The current WEC Featherweight Champion of the World. The contest begins on November 5th.
Urijah tells me about the contest, “They are going to be flown out and all their accommodations paid for. We will get to do a one on one session. A meet and greet and all that good stuff. It is kind of cool. It’s a good idea. It is going to help promote me and also the sponsors as well.” About his gym Urijah tells me, “It’s my own gym, downtown Sacramento (http://www.ultimatefitness.pro/). I feel like it is one of the best facilities in America. We’ve got allot of top notch trainers and allot of great fighters that are going to be coming out of here and making a real big splash in the sport. It is an awesome facility. I spend most of my time here.”
Urijah is trained by different trainers depending on the discipline being taught. When asked who his trainers are Urijah replied, “My mui thai instructor, boxing instructor is Master Thong. He is a really accomplished trainer. He has 4 WEO Champions, 2 kick boxing World Champions and over 300 matches for mau thai itself and I have Fabio Prado. He is my Brazilian jiu jitsu coach now. There are allot of guys on our team that help out as well.”
Since Urijah’s only lose has been to Tyson Griffin I asked him if there would be plans to have another match with him. This is what he said, “Yeah I think it could happen. Maybe not right away, but something, before I’m done fighting and he is done fighting, hopefully, for sure will happen.”Faber fights for the WEC where Tyson fights for the UFC. They are no longer in the same weight class. I asked Urijah how he thought a match up could be made? He replied, “I’d have to go up in weight. I wouldn’t necessarily switch over to the UFC. Maybe they would do some kind of cross promotion. I’m not sure how it would work. I’m not really thinking that far into the future right now. I’m just trying to focus on what’s at hand and go day by day.”
Faber tells me his family supports his career. He says, “My family support is great. My mom doesn’t like to come watch me fight. She can’t handle the brutality of it. The idea of me getting punched and stuff like that. But she will watch it after she already knows the results. She has always supported me in my life in just about everything I’ve done. The rest of my family loves it! They know I’m following my dreams.”
Ending the interview Urijah said, “Thank you so much for all the support. I really feel the love. Keep on watching and check out: http://www.urijahfaber.com/ and enjoy the fight. It is going to be exciting.”
Matt Hamill is ready to fight his
childhood friend Rich Franklin
Written By Penny Buffington
August 26, 2008
On Monday August 25, 2008 the city of Utica N.Y. threw a pep rally for Matt Hamill. Matt is fighting the toughest fight of his life on September 6, 2008 at UFC 88 in Phillips, Georgia. Matt will be fighting his childhood friend Rich Franklin. After Matt graciously greeted, shook hands, signed his autograph, and took pictures with fans, I spoke with him to get his thoughts on the upcoming fight. First thing I wanted to know was about his friendship with Rich he told me, “Yes. He is a really good friend of mine. I helped him with wrestling takedowns. Rich and I we grew up together. We were raised and born in Cincinnati, Ohio. One day he asked me. He wanted some help with his takedowns so I just helped him out with takedowns and we’re still friends. No matter what, inside the ring or outside the ring. We leave friendship at the door. We two are professionals. I know it’s sad. It’s like fighting my brother but I have to do this. I fight for my daughter. I’m getting my name out there. I know he has more experience then I have. I’m inexperienced. My record is 6 and 1 and his record is 25 and 3. So that could be a stepping stone for me. He is a former World Champion that’s got me more motivated. I want to show what I got. I’m getting better every time I fight. So don’t miss my fight Sept 6th because I’m ready!”
Rich is fighting this fight by moving up in weight class from a middleweight to Light Heavyweight. I asked Matt if Rich was at a disadvantage for moving up in weight class. “No because he goes up in weight class he gets more energy. He had a hard time getting down to 185. Normal weight for him is about 220 so now he only has to go down to 205. My disadvantage is I won’t have a coach in my corner. I’m deaf. I cannot hear. So I have my own game plan. But that’s alright. I’m going to go out there and do my thing. Rich is a world class stiker. I have to keep my eyes open. It’s not going to be easy. There will be blood. I know that for a fact. I’m going to go out there with 100 percent and show them what I have.”
Matt has 30 acres where he plans to have a gym. He told me, “I’m a country boy. I like to train in the country.”
Attending the pep rally was an organization Matt has been working with to get mixed martial arts legalized in N.Y. State. I asked Matt what his contribution has been. He said, “When I found out there was no MMA in N.Y. UFC or any other MMA. I was shocked. I went to the senate and testified but they vetoed. I think it’s because it’s a bloody sport and they don’t like that.” You may check out the info for the organization called Anger Management at: http://www.angermanagement4mma.com. Matt has his own webpage as well. http://matthamill.com/.
The audio clips from Penny Buffington Interview with Matt Hamill
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N.Y. State Senator Joe Griffo spoke at a pep rally for Matt
& the Mayer of Utica N.Y. issued him a key to the city!
| Mikey Gomez Florida's #1 unsigned Mixed Martial Artist Written by Penny Buffington |
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| Monday, 18 August 2008 13:21 | |
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Frankie Edgar fresh off his dominating win over Hermes Franka
Interview with “Big” John
Written By Penny Buffington
7/9/2008
Mixed Martial Arts fans all time favorite ref. Big John McCarthy retired this year from the duties we loved to watch him perform. Since UFC 2 fans have just assumed he was a permanent fixture in the octagon. Personally I found it surprising and was interested in getting to know why he left the fast growing sport. This is what he told me. “There were a lot of things that lead up to my decision. I was frustrated with the way some things were being handled in mixed martial arts. There was people being put into positions that had the authority to have a say on the fighters fights themselves. There was people that were judging that had no idea what they were looking at. There was people that were refing that didn’t understand what they should do at given times and in certain situations, because they didn’t understand what the fighters were doing. That bothered me. When I went to people and talked about it, it was always… [Well don’t worry about it. We are growing and we’re expanding and things are going to get better.] It never did anything to make it better. I just looked at it, after awhile, I felt like I was being a hypocrite. He went on to explain,” It started out with MMA, from the very beginning, was a learning process for me and for everyone. But there came a certain point where if you didn’t understand the sport, then you shouldn’t have been a part of it. If you had the ability to be part of an athletic commission and get put into a space where you have the actual power to affect a fighter’s life or livelihood and you were doing that without understanding what that fighter was doing. That was what really got me frustrated. That was the biggest thing. That was a huge part of it. The other part of it was there were certain things that happened within the UFC that I was kind of working with. I didn’t particularly like. That was just a small part of it. That said to me, you know what, it’s time for me to walk away.”
John doesn’t complain without action. He is working with the ABC to change the laws that govern judges and referees. Big John told me,” The Association of Boxing governs all of the commissions throughout North America. We are trying to get things done as far as certification and education of judges and referees. They will actually have to go through a course. Prove that they know what they are doing. What they are supposed to do in a certain situations and know what the fighters are doing. They are going to have to prove all that. When that is in place, that’s a big step forward for the sport.”
I asked John if he would consider coming out of retirement. He replied,”I loved doing what I was doing. I loved working for the UFC. I loved working for the Athletic Commissions. I loved any show that I was doing .To go back to it, I always left the door open to, you know, someday I will go back. That could very well happen. But right now I’m doing other things. So am I going to go back? I keep saying yes, someday, but I don’t know. It’s funny, since I’ve retired, I’ve been asked to do more shows then I did when I was actually working. I am so busy it is ridiculous. Everyone is like, your retired, and I’m like, man if I’m retired…. I’m tired! I’m doing things all the time!”
John told me about the gym he owns. “My gym is in Valencia, Ca. Its sixteen thousand square feet as far as size. About four thousand square feet of mat space. I have an actual 30 by 30 cage and a 24 by 24 boxing ring in there. I wanted to have a place where you could do everything in one spot. All the things that I look at that are important to being a mixed martial artist. It’s been open now coming up on 2 years and it’s been fantastic. I love the place. It’s been a great experience.” I also brought up to John that I knew Owned Entertainment was in works to shoot a reality TV show there. “Jason Chambers from Human Weapon is part of it. Part of my thing was I wasn’t going to be part of it.” He chuckled, “I don’t have any desire to be part of a reality show. I’m loaning out the gym so they can do it and hopefully get some people that are good for it. I even have a couple of fighters who have tried out for it. So we will see if that happens. We’ll see how it goes.”
Finishing the interview with John he said, “The main thing I like to tell everyone is thank you to everyone that supports mixed martial arts. I really look at it like the sport came around at the right time, because of the internet, is what saved it. At a time when things were going bad the hardcore people kept it alive on the internet and it has just continued to grow. The UFC is obviously the big show in town they’ve done a great job of marketing it and of making people want to be at the events and want to see what is going on. The fans of the sport are what make the sport what it is. I thank them all the time. They’re always very kind to me. Anytime you see me come up and say hello. I love talking to you.”
John’s gym: http://www.bjmuta.com/
John’s webpage: http://www.bigjohnmccarthy.com/
audio clips from my interview with John:
PART ONE
PART TWO
