Latest / Drawn of History / UFC Referee Keith Peterson _ This Past Weekend w_ Theo Von _620(M4A_128K)

Transcript

UFC Referee Keith Peterson _ This Past Weekend w_ Theo Von _620(M4A_128K) · Drawn of History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Today's guest is a true renaissance man. He's a father,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: he's a MMA referee, he's a musician, and he's a mechanic,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and he absolutely hates nonsense. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. No Nonsense,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Keith Peterson.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Shine on.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: Me, and I will find a.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting here with the man, no-nonsense Keith Peterson. Thanks
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: for joining me, man.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: No problem.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: I got to ask you straight up, dude. How much
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: nonsense is allowed?
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: In what?
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: In fighting or life? What are your thoughts on nonsense?
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Because you got the name no-nonsense, right?
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know. There's a time and place, I guess, right?
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: But I think, like, the no-nonsense thing is just, you know,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: my approach towards things. And, you know, John Anik gave
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: me that nickname, and it kind of just stuck. And
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: I think it fits, you know. But, you know, there's nonsense.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: I think it'll allow a little.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: A little.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: A little.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Okay, it depends.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: During the holidays.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I guess. Okay, okay.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Maybe on your birthday, because there's a little bit of
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: nonsense allowed.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Usually, most of the things I do, I do very
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: straightforward and, you know, no nonsense, I guess.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been involved in too much nonsense, and it
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: gets a little hairy, that's for sure. Yeah, John Anik
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: gave you that nickname? When was that?
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a few years ago. Yeah, we had a few conversations,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: and then I think on air he said it, and
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: it just seemed to take off and fit.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: And I think it does fit. Yeah. You know, nicknames
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: are weird, but I've had a few.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what are some other ones you've had?
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: When I was little, my nickname was Froggy. From like
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: the little rascals, the voice.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: The little guy with the voice. I've always had this voice. So, yeah,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: that was my nickname pretty much until I got older.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Some people still call me that, though. Yeah, there's this
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: girl who moved in across the street. And she came
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: over because she wanted to play. Yeah, that fits, man.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: That fits.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: You're from New York.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Long Island, yeah. Long Island, New York. And I originally
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: lived in like East Meadow, Nassau County area. And now I, uh,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: I live in Islet, New York.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Islet. And how did you get into referee and how'd
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: that start for you?
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Um, well, I fought amateurs for a while and, um,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: for about three years, um, all different fights, amateur level, uh,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: MMA fights, Muay Thai fights, um, kickboxing. And then, um,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: we had a lot going on. So it was getting
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: harder and harder, you know, to put the time in. And, um,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: someone just, uh, it's like, Oh, why don't you, you know,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: judge or, or be an inspector at, at fights at
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: amateur fights or stuff like that. And I was like, okay,
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: that sounds cool. I'll be, you know, still be at
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: the fights. And, and then, um, I went, took this
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: course and the, uh, I was in New Jersey and, um,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: there was this old referee, uh, Donnie Caroline. He reffed
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: a bunch of my kickboxing, MMA fights and stuff.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Donnie Caroline.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah. He's, um, He passed away a few years ago.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: And he was like, you'll be really good at reffing.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: You'll be really good at reffing. So I got my
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: chance to reff a few amateur fights and kind of
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: just took off from there. And he was pretty supportive
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: during the amateur part of it.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Were some of those early bouts tougher? Was it tougher
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: to referee then? Is it something that gets easier over time?
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I compare it to, and I don't know if
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: it's a good comparison, but it would be like being
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: a brain surgeon. Like, you're not going to be as
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: good as you're going to be 10 years, but no
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: one could die. Yeah. Right? Pretty simple. Right? And so
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: you learn lots and lots of little things.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: So you're saying you're not going to be as good
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: as you're going to be later, but as long as
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: you don't let somebody die.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You got to stop the fight when it's supposed
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: to be stopped. And then the rules, it all comes
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: in as you go.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Take me on an early experience that was kind of
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: like a lot for a referee.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So for me, my first couple... Like, I remember
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: my first or second time reffing, the fight was really even.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: It was amateurs, really even. And then the kid was, like,
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: you know, losing pretty bad. And I was like, wow,
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: this kid's losing pretty bad. You know, this fight should
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: be stopped. And I was like, oh, no, that's me.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: And I stopped it. And then kind of from there,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: you're like, yeah, you're the one in there. You know,
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: because you're up close and, like, you know, you have
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: to adapt into a referee. Like, um, at first, you know,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: I came out from fighting. So my mentality was like
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: a fighter, like as a fighter, I didn't always agree
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: with the referee. Like, you know, Oh, it's.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: A good point. Cause as a fighter, you have a, you're, you're.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Just doing your thing. And, you know, especially, you know,
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: at the high level, like this is, you know, it's
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: their health, their, lives, the livelihood, you know, and all
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: the dedication in the world, you know, that it takes. So,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: you know, they're on a different journey that day than
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: I am, you know, for sure.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: And are there fighters that will tell you, they'll come
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: up to you before about and say like, this is like,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: do not do this or do this.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: You'll get, you know, do not. And then I just
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: let them talk. And then I, you know, do my,
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: you know, whatever my criteria is. I don't change it.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: You can't?
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: No, you can't. You don't change it.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Is there one fighter that's like, do not for anything? Like,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: is there somebody that's just like, let me go to
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: the end of the road every time? Like, somebody that
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: stands out? Because it's kind of.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: No, like, there's been, like, not to name any, but
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: a lot of times when they say, don't stop this,
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: they usually, you end up stopping it. It's weird. Or they'll, like,
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: tap or something. They'll, like, you know, be like, wow.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Especially when they say, you know, oh, I'm willing to
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: die or whatever. But some guys are just quiet. And just,
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: you know, that they're there to get the job done. And,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: you know, and as far as, you know, it's like,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: as I said, a criteria, you know, let's say you've
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: watched a lot of fights, like, and when I'm reffing,
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: I'll say like, you have to move. And if they
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: fit that criteria, if they're defending and they can move,
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: you know, it's a fight. My main thing, as I said, this,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: you know, they're putting their health on the line. My
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: main thing, and is to have them fairly fight and,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: you know, health, like them leaving and being able to
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: fight again or whatever they want to do again.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Um, you know, be a family person. Like there's a lot,
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: like besides me being a parent myself, it's the most
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: important thing I'll ever do. It's, it's very important. And,
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: you know, on the outside, it's just a fight, but
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: a lot can happen, you know?
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: And so, um, You're kind of like a safeguard.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And, you know, and it's like you're in there.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: And as I said, emotions from everywhere, right? Fighters, corners,
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: people who are there to watch the fight from, you know,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: you get a different vibe from the people in the
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: front row, from the people in the back row, right?
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: So it's a very emotional. So really I try to
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: keep my emotions aside and, you know, just have this
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: set thing of what I do each time. And, you know,
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: everyone makes mistakes. That doesn't make them acceptable either. Like,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: you know, oh, everyone makes, and they do, and I do. But,
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: you know, make a mistake, admit it, and learn from it,
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: and move on.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Is there a fight that you've had to like, you
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: were like, yeah, maybe that was a little early, or
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: that was, I didn't read it correctly?
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: I try not to read it totally into the early ones.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: I don't have many where I'm like, oh, that was late.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Like I'm lucky that I don't really have one where
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: I'm like, wow, that's not what I'm here to do.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: So that I'm lucky. But, you know, to know as
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: you get more experience, you know. Like you'll know when
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: even like sometimes someone will be like, ah, I think
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: that was a little early. And you'll know right in
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: your head it wasn't a little early. Like because you're
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: there right next to them. So, you know, you hear
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: all the sounds.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: That's a good point actually.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: And everything else.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right there. I mean, you're right there. You're
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the closest person to it. You can feel a different
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: energy than we can.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Yes. And even cameras, I've done, you know, because I
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: look at my work when I'm done with it, and
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: I've watched five different angles. And, like, usually the only angle, like,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: there's one angle that I'm like, oh, that's what I saw. Yeah.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: And the other angles are kind of maybe a little bit,
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: and then there's one, like, closest to where my eyes are,
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: and they are. Where you're like, oh, that's what I saw.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: You ever go back and, like with your lady, make
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: love to a fight or watch one or something like that?
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? Watch your work type of thing?
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Like a thing people will watch their... Oh, like watch
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: it just to say, wow, I did great?
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I don't look at the ones I think they're.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Good yeah yeah what uh tell me a little bit
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: about your life outside of works I know you're in
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: a band I remember you telling me about it one
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: time yeah I was.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: In I was in two bands it was my first
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: band we started in 1998 and then my other one
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: we've been around a pretty long time too um what's
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: that band called the first one was called GFY and
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: um the second one's Loser Sometimes Win And, uh, they're
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: like New York hardcore bands.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Hardcore.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Nice. And where do you kind of model them? What
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: is GFY for?
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: Uh, go fuck yourself. Oh yeah. I was younger, younger than, yeah.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, that shit was fun.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Huh?
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Dude, where did you guys play? How'd you guys get started?
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Um, we, uh, Long Island guys. And, um, we, uh, met,
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: you know, like a music scene. Yeah. And, um, we met, uh, um,
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh, let's start something. And then we
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: just started it.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: And were you singing? Were you playing an instrument? I sing.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: You did.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: So that voice as part of it, was that one
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: of the reasons you even got into singing? Just because
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: your voice was kind of different?
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: It just happens to be that my voice kind of
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: fit the hardcore thing. But I liked hardcore way before that.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: But I kind of started listening to hardcore punk rock
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: music when I was really young. But yeah, I got
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: into heavy metal and Black Sabbath and all that. And
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: then When I started in my early teens, I wanted
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: to find something that would fit more of where I
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: was and more like street music and stuff. So I
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: found hardcore and just fell in love with it from then. Still,
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: that's what I listen to. I listen to not everything, actually.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: I don't like people who say they listen to everything,
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: but I listen to a lot of types of music.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Let's take a gander at some of it. Let's take
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: an ear gander here at a little bit of it.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Play that second one, actually. I like Till I Die.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, boy! Did you come in on this?
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think right after the intro. Who the hell
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: are you?
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: We came to wreck everything and ruin your life.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: God sent us. Yeah, that's right. There's two singers in
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: this band. Yeah.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah bro i like it that vibe is a pure
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: vibe dude that was like that's like one type of
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: culture that whole energy.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: And it's like silly too like the the intro that
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: is the death march right and it was like halloween
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: and i pressed this thing and that's what it was
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: like so i went to my guys i'm like yo
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: Play the Death March.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: And there you go.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: What are the ladies like that would come to those shows?
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: That's how I met my wife. Really?
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's pretty good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's it.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: So from right before the band started or whatever, I
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: met her.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Where did you meet her at? Like take me through that.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: At the band Hatebreed. At a Hatebreed show.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Hatebreed?
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Bring them up.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: They're famous.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: And are they out of New York?
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: No, Connecticut. They're famous now. They play huge shows.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I've heard their name before. And so
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: were you guys just, like, were you at the concession
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: stand or were you just, like, kind of, like, just
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: in the bounce pit?
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: I don't know if there's a concession stand, but.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, yeah. It's just tongue piercings and vodka at it. Yeah,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: where'd you meet her at?
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: At the show and just, you know, whatever, the dance
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: and what do you call it, the mosh pit? Yeah. And, yeah,
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: and we just met and that was that, yeah.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Dude, those pits are fun kind of if you can
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: coordinate the pits. Do you ever do that when you're
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: on stage where you're like, all right, everybody to this
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: side and this side, and then you make a merge?
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: I was at a Suicide Boys show not long ago.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: There's probably a lot more people at that show than
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: my show.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. But they'll do this thing where it's like
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: this kind of controlled thing. But mosh pits used to
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: be pretty sick.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: It's like the wall of death. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. When
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: there's a big crowd, those are cool looking.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just dope, dude.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. hunkerman that does that really good with says
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: is sick.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Of it all they do a good wall of death
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: sick of it all yeah yeah i'm not familiar with
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: them i think i'm not familiar with as much of
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: that genre of music when i was growing up like
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: we had like a brother's friend like like my brother's
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: friends they had a band that was like that and
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: so like being the younger brother we go lit you
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: know just try to get involved and stuff um but
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: there was always this kind of like uh I think
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: in our area it was kind of fringe a little
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: bit just because we didn't have as many people that
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: listened to that type of music.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in New York it's, you know, even though it
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: has its ups and downs, but like at one point
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: you had like CBGBs was like the home, you know,
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: and stuff like that. And you had lots of clubs.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Would you go there when you were growing up, CBGB?
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's where I went mostly. And then I ended
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: up playing there in both bands a few times.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Bring it up, CBGB. CBGB was a legendary New York
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: City music club in the Bowery District founded by Hilly Kristall.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: In 1973, they became a crucial incubator for the American
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: punk and new wave rock movements. Though it was initially
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: intended for country bluegrass and blues music, which the CBGB, oh,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: I didn't even realize that name stands for, country bluegrass blues.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: The unglamorous, gritty venue hosted influential bands like the Ramones, Blondie,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Talking Heads, And Patti Smith grew before closing in 2006.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: So do you remember who you go see there?
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. Like New York bands like Sick of It All,
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Gnostic Front. Pretty much like once you kind of get
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: into that, then it's all friends bands. They get to play.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: They play there. You go. Like we played there a
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: few times. It was like Sundays. You know, you'd go to...
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: That's where you go. Take the train and go to
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: a show. And then there's... At the time, there was
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: a bunch of clubs, great clubs there. Being young, at
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: one point you can go three or four shows a week.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: So that became main focus for a pretty long time.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: Did you have a routine before you got on stage
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: with your band? Yeah.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: You know, like, I would just stand, like, we'd be
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: selling shirts, so stand behind the distro and kind of
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: get ready and just get on and go. It's not much,
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: you know, not much, like, I don't even, you know,
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: I think it's good, but, like, anyone could do it,
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: what I was doing. Just get on, and if you
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: love it, you just start screaming, I guess.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: But, you know, I, like, the raw energy of it
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: all is really what I still love. And I don't
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: get to go to shows as much anymore, but my
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: son's really involved. My son's in three bands right now. Oh, wow.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: So he's really involved in that. But I still love
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: the whole culture.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it almost seems like there's some correlation there between
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: the intensity, right, of that and MMA.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there is. Definitely, definitely.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's almost like when the pedal is pressed all
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: the way down in a car and you're going at that.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Like, there's that. I was actually really surprised when
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: I started reffing, you know, events that were on TV,
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: how many guys at the hardcore scene were into MMA and,
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: you know, knew, like, you know, the events and stuff.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: There is a connection, you know, with jiu-jitsu and hardcore teams.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: A lot of guys roll. But with, you know... With
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: all that stuff, like, oh, they knew everything about it.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: I was pretty surprised. But it makes sense.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it does. What happens when your health becomes the punchline?
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: That's where we're at. From seed oils to stress, toxins
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: to pollutants, the modern world is screwing with our health
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: at the cellular level, leading to exhaustion, brain fog, digestive issues,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: and more. But here's the thing. You don't have to
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: settle for feeling like garbage 24-7. Armra Colostrum is nature's
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: original health hack. Packed with over 400 bioactive nutrients that
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: fortify gut integrity, strengthen immunity, revitalize hair growth, fuel stamina,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: elevate focus, and help you function like a human again.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: I take my Armra Colostrum six days a week. I
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: make my smoothie, and at the very end, I take
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: my packet of Armra Colostrum and pour it right on in.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: And we've worked out a special offer for our audience.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Receive 15% off your first order. Go to tryarmra.com slash
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Theo or enter Theo to get 15% off your first order.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: That's tryarmra, T-R-Y-A-R-M-R-A dot com slash T-H-E-O. Are you the
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: breadwinner of your family? and in the case of tragedy,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: would want to make sure your loss of income is covered.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: like keeping up with mortgage, tuition, and other bills. Then
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: I want to tell you about Ethos. Ethos is an
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: online platform that makes getting life insurance fast and easy
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: to protect your family's future in minutes, not months. There's
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: no complicated process, and it's 100% online. I've applied for
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: life insurance before, and it's a hassle. I want you
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: to mail them in some blood or drive over here
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: and fill this and do that. I want you to
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: send them your own footprints or whatever. It can take forever.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: It's confusing. Not with Ethos. With Ethos, it's simple. No
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: medical exam required. Just a few health questions. You get
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: a quote in as little as 10 minutes, and you
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: can get same-day coverage without ever leaving your house. Ethos
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: is a trustworthy company that disrupts the traditional life insurance industry.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get your
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: free quote at ethos.com slash T-H-E-O. That's E-T-H-O-S dot com
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: slash Theo. Application times may vary. Rates may vary. Where'd
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: you take your wife on y'all's first date?
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: Do you remember? I think we went to the diner. Yeah.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: Something like that.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: Cheese fries or something.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm talking about. I'm thinking about sometimes fancy dates.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: I'm about to cheese fry a woman and see what happens.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: I need a wife. With the brown gravy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: That's the ticket.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Was she in a band or was she like?
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: No. She wasn't in a band. Just, you know, like
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: she liked ska music.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: And back then, like Long Island, they would, you know,
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: bands would play. uh, hardcore bands and ska bands would
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: pay on the same bill. And then she just ended
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: up being a big fan of hardcore music too.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: What differentiates ska?
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: Uh, ska has got, uh, uh, the definition, but, uh, uh,
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: it's got a saxophones and stuff in the horn section. Hmm.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Usually. I never really thought about that.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: I've always wondered.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Ska music is a lively genre originated in Jamaica in
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: the 1950s, blending elements of Caribbean, Calypso, American jazz and
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: rhythm and blues. Um, A walking bass line with strong
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: accents on the offbeat played by guitar. Piano known as
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: the skank. Fast tempos and energetic melodies.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: Let me see.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: In Jamaica, ska was popular among working class rude boys.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Rude boy. While in the UK, skinheads adopted the genre
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: during the two-tone era as a form of working class solidarity.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: It's pretty cool. How long have you guys been married now?
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: 23 years.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: What's been the key to a long marriage, do you
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: feel like? How's that been? How's that road been?
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: Awesome. That part is amazing. Marriage, kids, that's my number
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: one thing, and it's been good. I would lie and
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: say easy, but good, good, real good.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: You think you chose a good partner?
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. No, definitely. Yeah.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: What makes her pretty great, do you feel like?
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I guess the smart answer would be everything.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: But she's Italian?
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: She's Argentinian and Italian.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, boy. Keep you on your toes.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. She definitely is. And, yeah, you know, as
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: far as, like, us parenting together and stuff like that,
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: it's just perfectly, like, very good. Works out really good.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: You know, like, certain things I'm good at, help her.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Certain things she's good at helps me. Mostly what she's
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: good at helps me. Um, she keeps it definitely, uh, going.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: She's the one that keeps it going. Yeah. By a lot.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. For sure, man. Um, what was it like when
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: you guys decided to have kids? Was that like a
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: scary choice or was it something you guys were just
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: both excited about? Was it scary for you kind of
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: to become a dad? Like what was your relationship with
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: your dad?
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Like, um, I'm good. Both of my parents.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Good.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: Um, but, uh, Yeah, I don't think I was nervous.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: I do know, like, when our first son was born,
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: I kind of looked, and it was like, real deal now, right?
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: You're like, holding him? Like, all right, like, this guy
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: depends on me for everything. Like, everything, you know? So
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: you're like, all right, I got to get it together.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: I got to make sure, you know, and I had
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: it together, but I got to make sure that I
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: do this right, you know? And, you know, obviously, just
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: like we said before, you make mistakes with things, but, like,
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: my goal is to, you know, I have three kids,
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: and raising them to be good people without having to try,
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: if that makes any sense. You know how guys like
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: us are trying to do the right thing? I want
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: my kids to just be able to do the right
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: thing without having to try, which is probably impossible, but
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: if you shoot for that goal, it's good. It's a
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: good thing. Yeah.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: I don't have any experience parenting, but I think it's
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: something that I start to look forward to more and more.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: And I do think it's something that, like, kind of
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: gets you into a new phase of life, right?
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, definitely.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: I feel like I've been in this same phase of
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: life sometimes for a while, kind of like, but I
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: don't have another phase yet. You know, it's like I
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: don't have a wife or family yet, you know? Sometimes
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: people will be like, dude, you got to grow up.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, dude, like what? What do you want
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: me to just go sit in a, like, rocking chair
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: or something? Like, what do you want me to do?
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely not.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: I want to enjoy my life.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: Even with my kids, there's been– Different, like, my 23-year-old is, like,
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: really into the hardcore scene because when he was born,
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: I was still very into that, still played shows, still,
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: you know, went to shows. My friends would come over.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: That's all we would play in the backyard for barbecues. So, like,
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: he's really into that. And then, you know, my daughter,
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: it's wrestling, wrestling, wrestling.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Oh, she loves it.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and because by the time, you know, she was
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: getting older. She's 19, and she was getting– Older, that's
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: what my older guy was doing. We were into the
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: wrestling thing. So, and then that, you know, my 14
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: year old just wrestling, wrestling and skateboarding. He's into skateboarding. So,
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: you know, he's pretty good.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, there's your children right there?
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's them.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Let's go, Keith. That's awesome.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: That's my son with the Rancid shirt on and that's
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: his girlfriend. That's my youngest one and my daughter's at
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: the end.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Dude, congratulations, bro. That's so cool, man.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: That's cool.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: That's so cool. Yeah. Yeah, there's something just special about that,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: about seeing a man and his family, you know? You
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: look like you've lost weight since then, huh?
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've lost a good amount of weight. Have you?
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Are you taking the peptides?
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: No, I just stopped eating horribly, and I'm running every day.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: And just, you know, like I wasn't eating well, I
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: don't think.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: What were you eating?
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: Everything.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: So....
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: Everything.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Did you have one snack like at night? What was
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: that snack that got you at night?
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: Like three gallons of ice cream or something. Like I
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: was eating a lot. Really? Like I guess it was
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: gradual so people didn't realize, but I'm not the biggest
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: guy in the world. And I weigh like 186 pounds.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: It's a lot. And so I slowly, you know, even
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: though since I've been losing the weight, people, oh, he's
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: sick or he lost too much weight or whatever, but
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: you can never make people happy. You're fat, you're skinny,
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: you're short. which I can't make myself taller. So I
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: don't understand that comment.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: Get taller. Yeah. It's like, what do you mean? They
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: need me here.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: I'm closer to the fight.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You have a big head. I didn't choose to
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: have a big head.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: So let me get this nail file. Yeah.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: So like things, but, uh, I feel good. I love that.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: I've lost the weight. Um, you know, I'm trying to
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: put some muscle on.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Did you have a health scare or anything like that?
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: No, I wanted to be healthy. Um, You know, a
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: few things were going, and not so much with me,
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: but around me. And I was like, you know, I
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: want to make sure I'm healthier.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: What do you mean, like, a few things were going?
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Like a few people passed away. Oh, you saw people
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: having the effects of not being healthy.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and just, you know, even, you know, some of
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: them healthy, but just, I guess, not lucky. So I'm like,
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: got to give yourself the best chance, right?
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sometimes you got to meet God halfway, you know?
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's never going to be perfect. But, you know, like,
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: I saw this barbecue place. I don't know where I am.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: I'm eating some fried alligator later, for sure. For sure. Hell, yeah.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they got some good stuff around here, man. The
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: food scene's been getting better here in Nashville as the
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: city's been growing, too. What about, like, did you struggle
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: over the years with any addiction stuff? Did you drink?
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: No. Well, I drank, but I didn't. wasn't necessarily like
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: struggle and addiction.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: I couldn't remember if you told me that one time.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: I don't, I don't drink anymore really. Um, but, uh,
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: I never, never really even tried drugs. It was never
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: kind of like, I wrestled all the way through school.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Oh, that'll keep you clean.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: And, and, you know, so, um, I wasn't the greatest ever, but, uh,
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: I was really into it and, uh, and, uh, you know,
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: kind of kept me whatever I was, I was wild
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: enough without, drugs.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're a drug.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Something already in there. You know what
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: I mean?
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you already got half a gram of something stuck
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: in the back.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was never attracted to it.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Wow. That's wild, because I think people would look at
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: you and probably think something like that.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, probably, I guess.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: And people, I mean me, too.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: In the music scene that I'm in, a lot of
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: guys just, you know, probably you would think, oh, that
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: guy's on drugs, but They're just on whatever. That's who
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: they are. So, but I guess that, you know, even
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: these days the tattoos and stuff, you would think, oh,
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: that guy's.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Are you fully tattooed? What are you... Yeah, I have.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: Sleeves, you know. Sleeves and my back's almost done and
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: stuff like that.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: Whatever. For some reason, I got my hands in my neck, like,
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: real fast. I was young, though, like 22.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay, so these have been there for a while.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. I don't dislike them or anything.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah. No, it's cool. It's definitely an energy. I mean,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: you seem like, you know, like, yeah, you're like, you're
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: the no-nonsense guy. So it's like, you know, I think
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: you kind of look a little bit like there's not
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: a lot of nonsense allowed here. Yeah. Yeah, I guess
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: you're supposed to. So it's kind of wild that you
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: almost grew into that. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: You kind of met, you kind of lived your life
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: and then met that name, right?
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of, yeah. That's it's like, you know,
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: I kind of mind my own business. I always have,
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: you know, I'm always, you know, and it just like,
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: you know, I treat people the way that I want
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: to be treated, which most of the time is left alone. Right.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: I'm nice to, you know, I'm nice to kids, old
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: people and animals. Keep moving on.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what else can you ask out of a citizen?
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: That's it, right? Yeah.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: I think that's fair.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: I'd love to see you working at a pet and
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: zoo or something like that, dude, being like the operator
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: or something. I could have seen you working at like
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: whenever like the carnival would come to town when I
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: was a kid.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I would definitely probably be a good carny, right? Yeah, dude.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: But only on the, like the ride, it was the
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Gravitron where they had the dude in the.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: Middle that did the music.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: I love that ride. So I have an awesome Gravitron story.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: It was a, It was actually, I know the date.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: It was April 19th, 1985. This place local near me,
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: it's called Adventureland. And they had Gravitron. And the Van
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: Halen album, 5150, just came out. And they played that song,
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: Why Can't This Be Love, like a hundred times. Me
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: and my brother went on it like 80 times in
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: a row. And we just kept going. And then like
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: I would find, I was... Yeah, it was my ninth birthday,
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: I think. And it was for my birthday. That's why
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: I remember the date. And, like, you'd go and then
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: have the rules, right, of every single thing. And, like,
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: every single one, I'd break one of them. My brother
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: would be like, stop, stop, stop. Kick off my shoe
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: and it'd come back at you. You know? Yeah. I
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: remember that.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: That's crazy.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: The Gravitron was, like, my favorite. Fuck yeah, dude.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: And that was, like, where... Because that's... Dude, at that
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: time period, like... When we would go, yeah, I was
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: like 11, 12 or something like that, and you get
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: in there, and the dude who ran it would be
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: like this kind of like rock.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: Kind of look like a guy that shouldn't be running it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. Yeah.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Like, dude, somebody who dropped this guy in here. Somebody
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: hired him. Yeah, and it almost looked like this thing
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: came from like outer space, and you get in.
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like they built it around him.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: Yes, and the ramp would close up, and it would
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: be this dude who kind of looked like Slash from
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: Guns N' Roses, and then- And it would, you'd slide
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: up against that wall and you couldn't even like, you
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: could barely even move. But every now and then you
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: could like get your arm out and like just put.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: It on your friend. The more you went on, the
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: more your body got like used to it. You go
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: upside down and it's, you know, and stuff like that. Oh, damn.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: I didn't know people got used to it.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sideways.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, shit. Look at this. Yeah, yeah.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: Like standing there. That's pretty brave there too.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: See, I'm the other one. See the one where the
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: guy's facing the wall? Yeah, like he's getting me out
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: of here. Yeah, the dude who would try to turn
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: over and he just didn't have enough energy to get
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: back over. That would be me. Just humping the edge
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: of the Gravitron.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: His body's, like, split.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Dude, that shit was cool, though. There was just something.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: That guy looks like a normal guy there. Amazing. The
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: guy running it there.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that guy's an op, dude. That guy's not fucking real, dude.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: That guy's a narc, probably.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: But, dude, that shit was so much fun. The whole
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: idea of they're not spinning and you're spinning always, like,
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: got me. Like, I would always, like, explanation, like, He
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: looks like he's spinning, too.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: He's not.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Dude, did you have, who influenced that music in you
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: when you were a kid? Because I remember, like, my
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: brother would listen to, like, D.O., Lock Up the Wolves. Okay, yeah.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: He would listen to some, like, Skinny Puppy, maybe, I
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: think was a band as well.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: Like, nothing too crazy, but, like, kind of a little
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: bit of mainstream edge, you know?
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Skinny Puppy's, yeah, good. The, you know, the metal stuff, like,
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: I kind of, like, just grab it. you know, like sort.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: And I was like, I don't think guys would like
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: the cutoff sleeves and the, and the long hair, even
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: though I've never had long hair.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh yeah. No. Damn.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: Some in the front, like, uh, in the mid nineties,
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: I had like that skater hair thing.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: Somebody make us a couple of, uh, put together a
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: few memes of, um, somebody out there who knows how
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: to do it, uh, of, uh, of no-nonsense with some
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: long hair, just so we have them for the future.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: We'll throw a couple of them in. Or we'll put
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: this clip online and put a couple of them in.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: I'd love to just see that. Yeah, dude, I can't
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: believe you didn't even try it.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no. And then just that whole era, and then, like,
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: my brother, as he was going, he started listening to, like,
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: the different metal, but like Van Halen and, you know,
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: stuff like that. So we kind of got Motley Crue. Yeah.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: My first ever concert was Poison. I went with my brother.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: He was a few years older. So I went, and
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: then my second one was Motley Crue. Fuck, dude.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: That's so sick, bro.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: On Dr. Feelgood tour. Yeah.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: We've had Tommy Lee on here.
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: Awesome. Yeah. That's crazy. That's crazy. So that, that tour
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: he played like, up on the ceiling and he just
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: like did like even I think it was like ACDC
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: like cover songs and just like went across the ceiling
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: it's pretty cool.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: And your brother took you to that? yeah so you
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: guys were pretty close yeah yeah yeah nice does he
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: play music?
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Nah he actually passed away like a year and a
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: half ago oh man so yeah young at like 50
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: oh so yeah but uh what was he was he
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: suffering from something? no he had um he had uh
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: tumors but he he didn't know or didn't take care of,
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure which one, but he, so he went
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: to the hospital on a Tuesday, he died on a Friday.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: So it was real fast, real fast.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Did you get to see him in between those days?
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: I was there the whole time. You were? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, man. Yeah, yeah, so, yeah.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: What was that like? I mean, I hate to ask
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: you that.
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: Not good.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sorry.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: So, no.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: Fuck, it's not the most thoughtful question. I'm sorry that happened, man.
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but... So.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: I bet he was super proud of you, huh?
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So how things work is like this stuff's going
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: to happen to all of us, unfortunately. Yeah. Bad stuff, right?
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: So the way I feel is how are you going
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: to handle those moments? So I believe at that moment
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: it was handled as perfect as it possibly could.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: What makes you say that?
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, in a room of people, the room
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: was full with people he loved and they loved him.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: You know, he wasn't married. He didn't have kids. So
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: my kids were like his kids. And so they're surrounded,
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: you know, surrounded by his parents and just as good
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: as that could happen. You know what I mean? And so,
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: you know, I don't know. Like my brother was the
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: nervous guy. He didn't seem nervous at all. at that point.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: So I don't know, you know what I mean? Yeah.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: Much is weird. That's kind of interesting. I'll probably be
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: crying like a baby, but yeah, he had.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: To, you know, the world is kind of nerve wracking,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: you know, think about it.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So that's how, like he was always nervous and
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: I never was nervous about anything. One of the kids,
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: he'd cross in the street, I'd run and he'd be screaming.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: So we were really, really, really close. It was like
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: me and him, my, My mom worked most of the time,
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: two jobs and stuff. So it was me and him
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: and we were total opposite. Like even growing up, like
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: I got into like the metal music first. He would
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: listen to like Cultural Club and like Tears for Fears.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: It was just different. Then he got into rock and
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: roll stuff. But, you know, he was a comedian. He
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: was in school. He was in the drama club and
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: stuff and I was in sports. So we were totally different, but, like,
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: the same, I guess.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: Did you kind of feel like his protector sometimes in
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: some ways?
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: Well, he was older than me, but, yeah, I was definitely... And,
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you get that gritty brother who's the fucking.
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was definitely that, yeah. But it was weird
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: how he balanced it. Like, as I said, he was
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: nervous and had major anxiety, but, like, we were so different.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: It just... But it fit, like... Perfect. Like, our relationship was, like, good. Yeah. Like,
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: really good. Yeah. Yeah.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: What was his name?
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: Rob. Rob. Yeah.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: Nice, man. Rob Peterson?
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: Yes, sir. Oh.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, hello, Rob. Nice to meet you through your brother.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: And hope you guys are having a good time out there.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: Wherever you are. Yeah, whatever you're doing. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Did he get to come see you referee?
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: He never saw me referee. What? Actually, yeah.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: So I guess a lot of times you don't go
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: watch somebody work.
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah. But he came to see me fight. I actually
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: have a pretty funny. So I was fighting for a title, uh,
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: amateur title in, um, in Atlantic city and him and
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: his buddy.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: Was this one of your biggest fights?
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, it was like my, I think it was
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: my first amateur title fight. So it was a big deal.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: And it was actually, no. I was actually defending it.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: I took a fight on short notice. I bumped up
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: a weight and I lost. So now I was fighting
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: the same kid, but at our weight for the title.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: He was going to take my title, whatever. So my
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: brother and his buddies come. And I guess they're doing
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: their thing pretty early and they're going, you know, Atlantic
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: City and having fun. And then I come and as
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: I say, he's a really nervous guy. And he's standing
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: in like the hall, but the cage is right there.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: And he's like staring at the cage and he looks
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: like he's sweating. And I said to him, I'm like, yo,
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: what's up, Robbie? And I'm right behind him. And he's like,
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: oh my God, you know, fighting and, you know, you're
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: getting older, you have kids and whatever. And And the
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: ring girls walk by. And I go, hey, Robbie, you
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: see the ring girls? He goes, I'm not that nervous.
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: Of course I've seen the ring girls. That was pretty funny.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: He's like, I'm not buying. It was pretty funny. And
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: then I won the fight. We went out. It was
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: a really good, great night, too. I remember it being really,
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: really awesome.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: So you had an amateur belt.
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: A few, yeah, a few. I won that one.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Did you have a nickname when you were a fighter then?
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: Shortly, the Spartan. yeah so like we were watching 300
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: or something and someone said something like because he you
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: know he was just fighting hanging out with his wife
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: and playing with his kids and they're like oh that's
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: kind of like you I was like oh go with
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: that Spartan.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: But yeah yeah I saw where you fought one guy
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: three times yeah Jose Villanueva yeah what was that was
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: that because that was like a trilogy I guess yeah
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: what did that feel like was that part of that
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: same thing Yeah, that was part of it.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: Oh, it was? Yeah.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: So you guys were 1-1?
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: He ended up winning 2. He ended up winning 2.
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: We went back up, and he won 2.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: Did you feel like you could go back up? You're like,
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: I got him here. I can go back up there
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: and get him? Or what was that like?
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I can't remember. I'm trying to think.
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: I think back then.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: Did you have something against the guy?
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: I don't know. But I think back then, you know,
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: it was still kind of... The amateur scene was just
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: kind of growing. And.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: With MMA.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and he was good, and I was good, and
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: he was competitive. So, you know, probably, you know, I
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: was trying to fight some other guys in between, so
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: I was kickboxing and fighting Muay Thai fights too. But no,
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: nothing against him. I actually reffed him a bunch of
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: times after.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's pretty cool, man. Oh, this is part of
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: that bout?
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think this is the one. So this is
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: the one I bumped up and I fought on three
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: days notice. So this is the first one. I lose
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: this one, yeah.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: Keith, that's dope, bro.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: You're in there. It's weird that the ones I went
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: on on here, and that's the guy, Donny Carlyle? That's him.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: The referee?
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the guy who got me into reffing.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's cool.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: My first, yeah, my first.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: That's good defense right there, man.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I know how to wrestle a little bit, but
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: my first, I think he does take me down, but
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: I pop up and basically what happens is. Oh, look at.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: That, bro. Go back. Let's see a little bit of
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: that freaking.
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: You were loving that shit, huh?
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: What happens is I miss a back fist, but I
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: think if I hit it, he'd probably still be asleep,
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: but I miss it and kind of get slammed on
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: my head and move on from there. That's good. He
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: submits me.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: That's cool, man. Yeah.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: Those fights were good. They were fun, and he was
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: a good guy. And as I said, I reffed him after,
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: even in his pro career.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: That's pretty cool. Well, it's cool that you reffed him
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: after and that the referee's the guy that got you.
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of connections.
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: It's so amazing, man, about life if you're able to
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: stay kind of, as you're saying, healthy enough, right? If
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: you're able to take care of yourself mentally enough to stay.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: You don't even have to stay in the center lane.
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: You can veer off a little bit. But if you're
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: able to stay... so many of the pieces of our
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: past kind of really connect and make the future make sense.
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: For sure. Definitely. I've had, in the last couple of years,
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: I've had so many moments like that. It's crazy. Yeah? Yeah, yeah.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: Anyone that stands out?
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: Well, so my first couple of years in high school,
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: I didn't do so well. And I ended up doing
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: pretty well.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Like what do you mean didn't do so well? Like
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: in school?
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: In school, yeah.
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: Did you not like it? No.
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess. In like ninth grade, I didn't really
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: do very good.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: People were like, were you like fighting with other kids?
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: No, not so much. You know, back then kids fought
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: more often than they do now, for sure. But I
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: just didn't, you know, I guess that whole punk rock feel,
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: like not listening to authority. Oh, yeah. Yeah, something like that. But,
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: so I didn't do so well. And I went to
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: East Manor High School, didn't do so well there. And then,
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: you know, I ended up going to a few different
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: high schools. We moved a bunch of times. And so
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: it didn't end well.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: Did you graduate?
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: No, I graduated high school. I went to college for
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: a year. And then I'm a diesel mechanic for the
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: town I live in. I've been there 28 years.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: Are you still a diesel mechanic?
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: Are you in the union? Yeah. Oh, wow. What union
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: are you in?
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: Now we're USP. We change a lot. But when I
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: first started there, we were Teamsters. That was pretty cool.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: I thought the idea of being a Teamster was cool.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we turned O'Brien in. He worked with the Teamsters.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: He was Teamster's president. I'm not sure if he still is.
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: But so we've learned a little bit about unions over
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: the years. I didn't know anything about them until we
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: had him in, you know?
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the whole union job is awesome. I'm able
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: to do what I do and stuff that I want
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: to do and branch out. Wow.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: So you've been a diesel mechanic this whole time.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: How'd you get into that?
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: I did. decided college wasn't for me. My dad's like, well,
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: working is get a good job. So, um, got a
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: job like back then when you left college, you off
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: your parents benefits right after that. It wasn't like now
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: where it's to 26. So I, I needed a job.
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: I was roofing and, uh, I think I broke a
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: rib or something. And I, you know, my dad was like,
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: you need a job with insurance. And, and if you
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: get hurt, you know, you get paid. And so, uh,
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: I found this town job and I started a highway
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: for a little while, like nine months, and then I
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: got into the mechanic shop and that was that.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: You started working on the highway?
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so like, you know, mowing the lawns and stuff
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: on the highway. Oh, wow.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: You ever find anything cool out there? No. Damn.
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: Garbage that you have to pick up. That's it.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: I always want to find a body out there.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: Like a dead body. Long Island has a bunch of
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: them on the side of the highways, but... Yeah. Yeah.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: Or semi-living. You know what I'm saying? I hope they're alive,
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: but yeah.
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: I could totally... be fine with not finding a dead body.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah definitely I'm good yeah tomato tomato you know a body.
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: Part or something maybe yeah yeah yeah foot just a
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: thumbs up thumbs up that'd be kind of.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: Cool sounds like you're finding an emoji.
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah just like that that'd be.
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: Cool Sean O'Brien is still the general president of the
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: International Brotherhood of Teamsters as of October 2025 um Did
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: you have a mentor that taught you how to be
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: a diesel mechanic?
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: No, kind of like on-the-job learning. I did have, you know,
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: there were older guys there that were really good. And
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: kind of like if, you know, if I can't fix it,
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: I can break it even more, you know, just keep going.
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: And then from there, you know.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: And did you teach your kids any of those kind
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: of skills?
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit, you know, like the normal skills, like,
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: you know. Like, I actually, you know, there's kids that
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: don't know how to change a flat tire these days.
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: I've had a few of that. My kids know how
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: to change flat tires, and my daughter knows how to
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: change a flat tire.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: You know, stuff like that. And my younger guy is
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: the one that seems to be the one that's going
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: to be working with his hands. My older guy's a chef,
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: so he works with his hands just differently. But I
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: hope his hands aren't dirty when he's working. But, yeah,
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: my younger guy seems to be, you know, maybe do
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: some mechanic program moving forward. Mm-hmm.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: You're eating French fries at the beach, and you want
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: to take a quick dip in the ocean, so you
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: ask a seagull to watch your lunch. That's not security.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: That's catering for the seagull. There's a reason you wouldn't
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: trust a seagull with your fries, just like there's a
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: reason you wouldn't trust your insurance company with your case.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: You deserve someone who's actually on your side. That's why
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: there's Morgan & Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. For
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: over 35 years, Morgan & Morgan has been fighting for
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: the people, just like you and me. If you're injured
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: by someone else's negligence, you deserve to be paid. And
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: here's the truth. Not all law firms are the same.
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: If you're ever injured, you can check out Morgan & Morgan.
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: Their fee is free unless they win. For more information,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: go to ForThePeople.com slash Theo. That's F-O-R-ThePeople.com. dot com slash
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: T H E O. This is a paid advertisement. Getting
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: your sweat on might seem like hard work, but with
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: symmetry sauna, it's a work of art premium custom saunas
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: for your home or business. Plus a series of sleek
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: prebuilt saunas. I just got myself a symmetry sauna and
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: I'm sweating out bad decisions. Like the time I tried
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: to just, uh, fill my own, um, chipped tooth in.
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: Why sauna? Well, it relieves sore joints and muscles, improves skin,
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: boosts heart health, and melts stress like hot butter. And
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: I'm finally sleeping like a baby, which is rare since
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: I'm usually up at 3 a.m. wondering if penguins have knees.
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: Pro athletes, fitness buffs, big folks getting small, small folk
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: getting big. Everybody's hot boxing. And symmetry saunas can help.
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: Designed in the USA, made with aspen wood from ancient
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: Estonian forests. Yep, fancy trees. Symmetry sauna, the perfect balance
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: of form and function. Learn more about how to get
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: your own premium home sauna from Symmetry Sauna at symmetriesauna.com
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: slash T-H-E-O. So take us on the journey of how
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: you get into working with the UFC.
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: So I started raffing. And so each one, you know,
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: is commissions. And I started raffing first in New Jersey.
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: And then Pennsylvania got sanctioned. And it's a really big state.
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: So I got a lot of work there. And I
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: was working, putting in a lot of time there. And
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: I think a few months into being sanctioned, they had
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: a show, UFC 101 in Philadelphia. And you went to
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: the fight? No, I worked. I refed that one. That's
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: my first one was 101.
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: Bring that up. Bring that card up.
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: I refed the first two fights.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: What was that like that first day? I mean, did
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: you have your own kind of green room? Was it
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: a little bit different? What was that like?
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: Just normal.
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: But you had to be so excited. But how did
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: you get it?
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: I was actually so excited I didn't even know how
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: to get in. So I've never gone to a venue
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: without a ticket, right? So I didn't ask them. I
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: didn't ask what I needed. And I got there and
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: realized how do I get in there? So now I know.
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: You had to have your credential, obviously. And I ended
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: up getting it. But now I know how that works.
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: But you just tried to come and do the ticket.
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: No, I just got there and I was in the
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: parking lot and was like, how am I getting in?
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: I don't have a ticket. So yeah, that was 2009.
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: Who were the other referees? Do you remember on the card?
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: Maybe the same guys as now?
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: There's some, I think. Some are still now. Maybe Mark Goddard. Yes, actually.
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: I believe that was Mark Goddard's first time reffing in
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: the States, I believe. Or UFC in the States or
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: something like that.
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: So, yes, he was on that card.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: BJ Penn. Wow, that's amazing.
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: Dude.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: That's Forrest Griffin? Yep.
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: Wow. It was Anderson Silver versus Forrest Griffin. It was
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: a while now, I guess, right?
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Was there a fighter that you reffed for early
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: before he got to the UFC that you saw like
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: in amateurs and stuff?
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a bunch of them like Paul Felder.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Paul's the best, huh?
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: He's fearless.
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: He's awesome.
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: Could you tell then when you were seeing Paul then?
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's different level. Al Quinta, different level, tough. Yeah,
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to think. There's been a good amount over
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: the years that you see in the local stuff and
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: you reff and then And then you ref for them
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: in the UFC, which is pretty cool.
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: That's pretty cool, man.
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: For them and for me.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: Like for them that they're there, not that I'm there.
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: I don't think they really care about that. But, uh, yeah,
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: for me, it's like, wow. Yeah.
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: I'm a part of something.
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Like we're all on this journey. We're all on
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: the same journey in a way. Yeah.
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: As I said, you know, it's like, besides, you know,
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: my family stuff, it's the most important thing that, that
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: I'm going to end up doing. Um, you know, and
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: to see, you know, you think about it, you ref
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: them in the, you know, the local scene and they're
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: healthy enough to get there, right? And, you know, you think,
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: you know, you have something to do with that, you know?
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: That's a good point. You know, so. Was there ever
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: a fighter that you remember that stood out that something
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: happened in amateurs and they didn't make it like someone
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: that really stood out over the years?
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: Well, there's a lot of ones that you would say, oh,
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: this guy is going to be and they don't, you know,
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: it's a tough sport, right?
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: So, and, Anyone that comes to mind that kind of
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: liked it, you?
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: Not particularly name-wise, but there's been guys where I go, wow,
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: you know, sky's the limit. And then just, you know,
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: for whatever injury or it's hard, you know, like we
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: were saying, you talk about having kids and stuff. I think,
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: you know, once you start having kids and stuff, the
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: guys that have these families and they train like that,
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: you know how much dedication that takes and, and, and
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: sacrifice like a lot and women, you know, who do
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: the same, like the men and women who do that,
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: it takes a lot, a lot, a lot, um, to do. So,
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: you know, at that level. Yeah.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, when you see a guy going away, like, um,
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: to a camp for six weeks, eight weeks, 10 weeks
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: to get ready. And there, a lot of times they're
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: going to be away from their family. Maybe their family
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: will come and visit on the weekends and stuff because,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: you know, there's, there's, um, there's only a few places
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: in America where it's like kind of premier training. And
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: then you could go into the bout and lose in
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: the first round or, you know, it's like it could
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: end in 30 seconds. Yeah.
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: That's like training for the Olympics, you know, taking last, right?
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: You cannot train at all. Take last. Yeah. Training for
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: your whole life, you know? So that's what makes it,
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: you know, cool in a way too.
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's the, that's why I like when I go
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: to the fights and, you know, I like to go early.
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: I just, cause I'm like, this is like, this is
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: their life, right? You're getting to witness a piece of
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: somebody's life. Like they mean this. If they're at that level,
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: they mean this so much that to even be in
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: the presence of something like that, I think gives me energy.
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: It's like, I'm showing up to watch an eclipse almost,
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: something so rare, you know? Are there fighters when they
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: come in the ring, like, you know, Alex Pereira has
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: that energy. When you're in there, when he comes in,
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: like when I'm in there as a fan and he,
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: there is a unique energy, like that pentameter of that.
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: I would say, yeah, there's definitely fighters with energy that
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: you feel the energy.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: Are there some, like, what are some that you would
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: even name? Like, are there some that- Well, Dustin Poirier. Yeah, Poirier,
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: people are excited.
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the people energy, his own energy. Yeah. You just
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: can feel it. That's interesting. And, like, Clay Glita, win
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: or lose, the energy is just so good, yeah.
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: Dude, you see him, you just get excited.
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, just the energy. And it's coming off
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: of him, you can feel it, and that he wants
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: to be there, you know, like. Wow. But, yeah, there's
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: a lot of fighters that you just get that, really,
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: that energy from. And then when you get it from
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: both at the same time, that's where you really, it's
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: firing off, right? Yeah. Yeah.
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: Is it tougher to referee some of the bigger fighters?
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: Is it because of their body shape? Is there a
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: weight class that's a little bit tougher or different that
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: you have to adjust how you do or where you
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: place yourself?
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: I don't know about tougher or different. The smaller guys
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: are faster. The bigger guys are stronger, right? Physics, I guess.
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: So you just make sure you're fast enough for the
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: faster guys. and you're in the right position for the
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: bigger guys. I don't have a preference. I can ref whatever.
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: You want to be in the right position, and they'll
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: listen to your commands. Because people do ask, oh, how
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: would you stop them? Same way you'd stop a small guy.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: And they always all honor the referee for the most part.
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: For the most part, yeah. You know?
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: Because that's part of the code of.
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you give respect, you get respect, right? So, you know.
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the level of respect that's in that ring is
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: pretty amazing too, I feel like.
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I think people would be surprised definitely how, like,
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: you know, respectful fighters are to me. You know, I
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: can't really speak for anyone, but to me. And, you know, obviously,
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: you're not going to always agree, but for the most part,
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: for the very, very most part, they're very respectful.
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: Have you ever been at a fight where, uh, someone
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: passed away in the ring or there was something that
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: tragic that happened?
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: No. Wow.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: That's, that's amazing, man.
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: That's a blessing.
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: Cause you've refereed thousands of fights.
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, probably.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: Definitely. Definitely a lot of them. Yeah.
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: Is there anything different about refereeing a male fight to
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: a female fight?
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: No, I, I, you know, uh, I've been lucky to
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: get some of the best female fights ever. And, um,
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: There's really no difference. It's pretty amazing the level that
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: they've grown so quickly. For sure. In female sports in general,
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: if we talk about women's wrestling, last year I went
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: to the NAIA Women's Nationals. When your daughter was in it? Yeah. Oh,
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: she was. Yeah, she'd won the regional last year. Let's go! And.
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: The level of competition was insane. Really? You know, she
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: fell short her first year, last year. So we'll see
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: how this year goes. But the level and these, you know,
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: they're like, they're not girls. They're 26-year-old women in college.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's a good point.
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: There's some real tough women out there. So it was amazing.
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: Although I wish she had won a few matches, me
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: and her sitting there watching that level together was, you know,
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: two days it was in Kansas. And I was kind of,
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: at the end, kind of happy she didn't do that
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: well because we were able to go out for lunch
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: and dinner and hang out. Yeah. But this year is
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: a new year and we'll see how she does.
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: And she really loves it, huh?
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah. All my kids love it. really love wrestling.
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: There's such a great value in that. There's such a
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: great sense of you can take care of yourself, that
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: you can handle yourself, I bet.
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: There's more. Wrestling's the best sport that you can do
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: in high school level, well, youth level to college level.
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: Oh wrestlers will always be the craziest too you'd like
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: you'd just be driving one day and you'd see your
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: buddy wrapped in trash bags right it's like 90 degrees
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: out in Louisiana my buddy Paul Corso would be like
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: and I think it's his birthday actually today or tomorrow
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: but wrapped in trash bags just running down the highway
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: he's like I gotta fight in two hours you're like
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: who are you fighting you're fighting off Satan brother that's
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: wild yeah.
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: But same as what we were talking about but that
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: commitment too that commitment right and then it carries on
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: to almost anything And also like, you know, like when
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: you're wrestling and you feel defeat, right? Like you're learning
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: life lessons on a wrestling mat instead of having to
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: learn it outside world where the, you know, the cost
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 2: sometimes is a little more. So you're learning it just by,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: you know, training and stepping on a wrestling mat. There's nothing,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: you know, it's nothing better than that.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: When I was going to MMA classes, I remember there
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: would be like days where like, even after like I'd
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: sit there at the end of the day and sometimes
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: I would just like bawl, like just emotions would come
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: out of me. But it was stuff that got unlocked
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: that had been in my muscles or in my fascia
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: or in me. And it was like the ability to
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: be able to be like beaten by somebody that also
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: cares that you're going to be okay at the same time.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: There's something really fascinating about that. And I don't think
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: you can find it any other place, right? Like, you know,
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: your competitor also, they want to beat you, but they also,
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: Some of them want to teach you, especially if you're new.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: It's just like there's, it's unprecedented the different levels of
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: well-being and competition and ferociousness and defeat that are all
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: wrapped up in there.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and bonds can be made that way.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: You learn who all the cops are because all of
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: them are off duty. You know, they're all in there.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: And I saw a few guys that I used to
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: train with and mostly in the stand-up stuff and, you know,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: buckets of blood. We would really go hard. A lot
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: of people would come and be like, what the hell?
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: It was my early training. I just got bonds with
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: those guys forever. Seeing them is great. We laugh about that.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: I don't know. It was good.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: Do you ever think that a fighter threw a fight
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: or had given up but kept fighting? What is that
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: kind of energy like? How do you manage something like that?
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: How do you decide if it's just you interjecting some
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: of your own thoughts into what's going on? Can you
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: take me on even just some journeys about some of that?
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 2: So, like, you know, what, like, if a guy is
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: giving up or.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like, do you ever think a guy doesn't want
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: to be in there, but he's staying in there? Like,
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: do you ever get some of that energy?
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: It's kind of the sport where if you don't want
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: to be in there, most likely you're not going to
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 2: be for very long, right? So, like, I have seen
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 2: guys that it's not going very well, and you can
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: tell they definitely want to be there, right? That's a
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: little easier to see, I think. Um, definitely.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: But, um, yeah, I guess that's a good point, huh?
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Usually if you don't want to be there at
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: some point, you're not going to be there pretty quick.
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: And you can see, you know, guys get surprised or,
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: you know, overwhelmed. And for that moment, you know, live
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: to fight another day and whatever. And, but usually like
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 2: if a guy, you know, they, you know, you're stopping them.
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 2: They're not stopping themselves for the most part.
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: Have you ever had a guy stop himself or their
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: corner stop him? What's some of that like?
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: I have like amateur stuff. Like I had a kid
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: walk out of the cage and leave the other day.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: Wasn't for him. Good choice.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Wasn't for him. And I was amateur, so
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: like good decision.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: Fuck yeah.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: Go get a smoothie, homie. Yeah, see you later.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: I was like, all right. I waved it off. And
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: they're like, what? I'm like, yeah, once you leave, it's over. Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that'd be crazy. He comes back in. His mom's
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: like walking back in with him or something or his buddies.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: One time- It was my buddy, and he knocked this
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: guy out, and somehow his mom got in, and you
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: thought she was going to kneel down and tend to
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 2: her son, but the doctors were there. He was being
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: taken care of. She stepped over and gave him the finger,
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: gave my buddy the finger. It was crazy. I remember
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: it was many years ago, but I remember because ACDC
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: Thunderstruck was being played, and the moms gave him the
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: kid the finger. It was pretty awesome. Oh, that's epic, dude.
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Have there been some other instances that
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: have happened at the end of the match? What's that like?
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: Because that's a lot of energy. People are coming into
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: the ring. You still have fighters that are down sometimes.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: Obviously, that was years and years ago, and so now
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: it's only the right personnel coming in. Actually, I fought
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 2: on that card, that woman, so that was a long
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: time ago. It could be pretty... crazy you know especially
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 2: like the higher you know the event and loud and
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: stuff and then when the fight ends sometimes it's just
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: like that it is yeah it's just like like you
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: know so yeah it's crazy and the more over the
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: years the more you work the more the sounds kind
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: of some you hear some you don't like I can
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: pinpoint someone's voice and then other you know there's thousands
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: of people screaming. Yeah.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: It's crazy that it can be dead quiet in there
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: with so many people in there sometimes. And sometimes there'll
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: be certain cheers going on, but it's still a, there's
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: this real silence that's right up there by the cage. Like, um,
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: it's almost eerie in a way.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: It can be.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: Or mysterious.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: Or unique. It's, uh, it's powerful. Yeah. You know, cause
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: there can be like this insane moment, 20,000 people are watching.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 2: And it's quiet. Yeah. And then other times it's loud
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: and they're cheering and you're like, what are they saying?
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: Sometimes you can't understand what they're saying and stuff like that. And, and, uh,
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 2: so it's like up and down, you know, it's pretty crazy. Yes.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: Like life, man. Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: Up and down. Yeah.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: Did you ever suspect that a fighter threw a fight?
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: No, no, like, no, like, Some guys aren't, you know,
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 2: obviously I ref all different levels. So some guys are
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 2: coming in, they get punched and they're done. But that's just,
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 2: you know, they're not throwing it. They just don't have
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 2: the talent to, uh, but I've never suspected anything like that.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: What was it like when Conor would come in the ring?
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: Did you do any of his fights?
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: I didn't, no, I didn't do any of his fights,
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 2: but it was crazy. I've, uh, I've been, you know,
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 2: I've worked cards where he was on and like, uh,
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 2: Madison Square Garden, when he fought the first Madison Square Garden.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: It was crazy. And even after, you went outside and
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 2: there was Irish people cheering everywhere.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah. They show up.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. They really do.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: So could you even tell us who you thought the
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: best fighter is that you've seen?
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I, so I stopped looking at
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 2: fights like a fan a pretty long time ago.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, you did?
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I kind of don't see him that way. I
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: wouldn't even be able to pick a favorite fighter or
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 2: say who's the best fighter or anything like that. But,
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 2: you know, obviously, there's fights where you're like, wow, that
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 2: was really exciting or something like that.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: But, yeah, I kind of just very look at it
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 2: at the referee standpoint these days mostly.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: Is there a fighter that you feel like plays by
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: the rules the most?
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 2: Oh, there's... bunch of polite guys who are just polite,
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 2: but for the, for the most part, everyone really plays
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: by the rules. That's a good point. You know, but
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 2: you know, there's like, I think a lot of the,
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 2: a lot of the fouls that, you know, are accidental.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 2: You do. Yeah, I do. Some of, you know, some
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: of it couldn't even, even if you wanted to do
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 2: it the way, you know, it's such a fast thing.
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: That's a good point. Like, you know, it'd be hard
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: to strategize something like, yeah, but then you have.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: Some guys that are real grindy and when they're in
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: the cage, they're going to do it. they have to
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: do and it is a fight and you know you
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 2: got to try.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: To control that did you get to ref any of
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: Khabib's fights nope.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 2: So him and Connor but mostly everyone else but.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah is there a reason why you think no there's.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 2: No I don't believe there's a reason why how.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: Do you guys determine what fights your referee do you
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: draw out of a hat no.
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 2: The commission just gives you you know you'll go and
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 2: you'll get your assignments so I never really asked exactly
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 2: what they use.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: So you and Herb Dean aren't back there like this then?
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 2: No. Okay. No. So you come and they give you
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 2: a sheet and you already have your assignments there.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: Oh. And is it almost like opening up like a
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: Christmas wish list? Like in some ways, like are there
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: some you're excited about? Like are there some actually you're
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: happy you don't have to use so you can sit
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: and watch it?
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: Or do you even think of it like that? No.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: That's like a fan thinking of it.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I do sometimes and this sounds maybe crazy, but Like,
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 2: if I'm like, oh, wow, that fight would be hard,
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 2: I kind of hope I get it to see if,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: you know, if I could do it.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: And what would determine if a fight would be kind
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: of hard? Like, what even in your head makes you
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: think of that? Or what makes some fights harder than others?
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, some match-ups and, you know, things are like, oh,
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 2: this guy's really, has one knockout power and this guy's
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 2: really great on the ground, but, you know, he's not
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 2: very good at taking them down. So then, you know, you're,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 2: So you don't know what you're gonna get. And I
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 2: think that's what would make it harder or not complicated
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 2: but interesting. So let's get rid of the word harder,
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: but interesting for sure. Yeah.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: I think it's so interesting how so many fighters have
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: different reasons why they fight, you know, like some is
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: to test themselves. Some don't even know some is to
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: get rid of anger, you know, to challenge, um, some
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: just love the violence, you know, I just think it's,
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: it's pretty fascinating to see how many, uh, why guys
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: do it.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Different, you know, from different roads. Right.
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 2: And everyone, uh, yeah.
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: You coach, um, and we can wrap up in a
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: few minutes. Thank you so much, man. This has been cool.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it. You know, it's like, I get to
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: go sometimes to the fights and get to see you
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: guys there. And it's like, um, you know, it's almost
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: like you, I mean, you guys are kind of like
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: celebrities in that fighting world. I mean, that, that world
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: is built so big that I mean the referees are celebrities.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's like, Oh, you know.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: But you'll have to have people that are excited to
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: see you.
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: There is, but, uh, you know, it's crazy. Yeah, it
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 2: is because it's definitely not about, you know, me.
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: Of course. But there's, there's not, there's not a lot
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: of other sports. I don't think, um, what's that been like?
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: What's it like being a, like a part of something
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: that's changed? Like, have you noticed the changes over time?
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: Have you noticed a different energy in the space? Have you, like,
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: have you noticed that fighters change? What have you noticed?
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, obviously it's still a young sport, right?
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 2: And it's growing and growing. Not only, like, so I
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 2: think it was 2009 was my first year. So not
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 2: only has that all changed, but people have changed since 2009. So... Yeah,
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 2: fighters are different because people are different. And, you know,
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: and we have like, oh, the internet's even bigger and
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: all that stuff. And, you know, so yeah, a lot
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 2: of things have changed, but the concept is there, right?
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 2: Put two people in there and they fight. And so
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 2: that's the same. Fighters, like, end up the same. Like,
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 2: you know, even though times are different, like eventually like you'll,
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 2: you'll even me talking to one, you know, they're there
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 2: for one goal and, and, and you know, to, uh,
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 2: be competitive.
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: And that's always stayed the same.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: Um, was there ever like a fighter that retired in
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: the ring? Cause you know, a lot of times they'll
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: lay their gloves down. Was there any, any moment, one
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: of those that kind of stood out to you or.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to think.
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: Or just one that even caught your, caught your own feelings.
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 2: I believe, uh, I believe, I might be wrong, but
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 2: I believe Quake Guida retired the last time I reffed him,
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 2: I think. So that would be pretty significant because I've
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 2: reffed him a few times and he's awesome. So I believe,
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 2: and there's probably been others too that have retired after
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 2: I've reffed them. But those are always like, I know
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 2: some of them you can feel coming, right? And then some,
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 2: you can't. It happens in wrestling, too. They'll take off
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 2: their shoes and they leave it in the center. And
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 2: sometimes you're like, oh, yeah, makes sense. And other times, like, hey,
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 2: you know, you got more to give and more to go.
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 2: But as you said, you know, the amount of time
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 2: that stuff takes.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah. You spend time now coaching your daughters?
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so... Is that true? Yeah, so my daughter and I.
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: Is this her school?
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 2: This was her high school. So I coached for the... Well, she...
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 2: this is the team she wrestled for so we have
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 2: in our area so we have one school which is
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 2: Bayshore that has the girls wrestling team and then the
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 2: other schools which she went to isolate all go there
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 2: so I coach the Bayshore I'm the assistant coach at
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 2: the Bayshore girls team and then me and my daughter
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 2: run a club together called Empire girls wrestling together so
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 2: and right now that's growing like the whole sport's growing
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 2: it's amazing it's great that girls get the opportunity to
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: be in what I believe is the best sport and
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 2: it's awesome Yeah.
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 2: And then coaching with my daughter right now is really–
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 2: she's very good. She actually coached at– which is a
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 2: big thing for us at the national team, New York
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 2: national team at Fargo this year. It was her first
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 2: year coaching there.
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 2: And she did really well. And she's going to be
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 2: an awesome coach. She's dynamite, huh? Yeah.
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: What's her name? Mora.
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 2: Mora.
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: Oh, it's a pretty name, man.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow. Wow.
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: That's cool, man. Oh, there you go. Look at that.
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: So this was really cool. How much nonsense does Mora allow?
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 2: Not much either. Yeah, there's not much going on. Not
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 2: much nonsense.
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: This was.
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 2: August, the end of August. It was the New York
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 2: State Fair. And they invited us and we brought a
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 2: girls team and a boys team. And the boys and
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 2: the girls stay in like the 4-H dorms so they
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 2: get to stay fair for free the kids get to
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 2: walk around and do all that it was really cool and.
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: Then they wrestled us for the people that were.
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 2: Watching yeah so all those people just walking by the
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 2: state fair watching the duel meets Dude.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: That's great entertainment. Why not put something like that in
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: a place where people are already at and looking for entertainment?
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was pretty cool.
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: Because so often, sometimes you'll put it in a gym
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: or something and people don't even know, you know, especially
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: a lot of times in high school or even outside,
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: like in college, people, you just don't know. But if
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: you're at a fair, you're looking for entertainment.
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 2: And there it is. It was really cool. It was
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 2: our first year doing it. My wife planned it and
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 2: we got invited and it was really cool. We'll do
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 2: it again for sure. It was really cool.
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: Wow. Mora. Mora. M-O-R-A.
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 2: M-O-R-A.
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: Beautiful young lady. That's awesome, dude. Congratulations. Thanks.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 2: I didn't do anything, but.
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: Well, you showed up.
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's for sure. You know?
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's a lot of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: And you kept going.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: You know, we're talking about it today. It's like, yeah, like,
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: life has, there's a lot of little off ramps that
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: you can get on.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, you got, as we
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 2: were just talking earlier about things that, you know, you
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 2: don't think are ever going to happen, happens. And you
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 2: just got to keep going forward and then, you know,
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 2: eye on the prize, I guess. Yeah. So, yeah. So
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 2: I'm lucky, you know, I got all these good things going. Yeah.
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: It seems like you stay really busy. What is your
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: daily routine like, kind of?
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 2: So I start work at the town at 7.30 to 4.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: At the diesel mechanic?
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And then.
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: That's unbelievable.
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 2: And then our practices, well, right now, our practice is
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 2: just Empire Practices. They're from 7 to 9 o'clock on Mondays, Wednesdays,
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 2: and Thursdays, and Sundays. And then now we're starting the
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 2: high school season, so we have open mats for that too. Wow.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 2: Keeping busy.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that keeps you busy. You like staying busy, huh?
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, very. I like to stay busy. I like to
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 2: keep moving. Yeah. Yeah, that's me. I don't sit around much.
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 2: I've never been much of a sit-around type of guy.
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 2: But, you know.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: Well too much nonsense can happen yeah but you can
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: still have fun yeah it's true but you can have
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: like I'm a pretty serious guy but I'm like things
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: I'm good at I'm good at making fun of myself
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: I'm good at laughing I know you know like I
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: came to see your.
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 2: Show that was funny yeah and I was surprised my
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 2: cousins were there they're huge fans they had a good
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 2: time yeah yeah you know when they told me they
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 2: were gonna be I was like oh hey I'm going
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 2: so they're huge fans it was good it was good
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 2: thanks man it was funny yeah I'll accept that. I
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 2: appreciate that.
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: Hey, you're a referee. You would know, man.
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't know about if I had no comedy, but.
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: I'll take it though.
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good enough.
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: Fair enough. Fair enough.
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 2: I've laughed a few times. Hey, that's fair.
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: That's all we can ask. From a guy who doesn't
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: accept nonsense, that's the most we can ask. Is there
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: any other– oh, are referees allowed to– is there like
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: an alcohol rule with referees? Like I know with pilots–
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: can you look it up for me? How soon before
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: a flight can a pilot have alcohol? Is there a
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: rule with referees that you can or can't drink alcohol?
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: before a fight?
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 2: Well, you can't drink before a fight. So I would think,
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 2: I would think it would be like, uh, 24 hours
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 2: or something like that.
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: I had never, you know, but they never, it's never
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: like they don't, they're not breathalyzing breaths or anything like that.
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: But it would be hard to do.
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 2: So what?
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: Referee a fight. If somebody had been drinking, it.
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 2: Would probably be, well, it would be impossible like, uh,
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 2: to actually do the actual thing would be impossible. But then,
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 2: you know, you, you spend, so you're, you're in there, you're,
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 2: you're with doctors, commissions and, whatever, and I wouldn't think
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 2: they'd let you.
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, somebody would catch on.
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, someone would catch on.
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: Let me see what this says. Many airlines have stricter
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: internal policies, with some requiring pilots to abstain for at
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: least 12 hours before flying to allow sufficient time for metabolization. Dude, 12?
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 2: I don't think 12 hours is long enough, to be honest.
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 2: I agree, bro. 12 hours seems, you know.
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: That's not that much, bro.
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 2: You want to hear something crazy. So I have a CDL,
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 2: so it has to be zeros. When they do the
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 2: drug test, they do a blow. You're allowed to blow
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 2: a percentage.
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: In summary, pilots must avoid alcohol for at least eight
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: hours before a flight. Maintain BAC below 0.04. Yeah. That's
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: drunk in some states, I think.
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 2: Damn.
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: And not fly while hungover or impaired.
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah. So no, yeah. So I guess.
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: Oh my God, bro. They should have to blow it
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: in the front of the plane and show the number
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: of the rest of the plane.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 2: That's pretty crazy. Yeah, no, we don't do breathalyzer or anything,
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 2: but you wouldn't.
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: It's never been an issue?
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 2: No, no.
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: You've never heard of anybody having an issue?
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 2: No, a real one, no.
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: What's it like when you get there from when you,
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: when you leave? Take me through a UFC fight as
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: a referee.
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 2: So you get there.
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: How early? How early do you get there?
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 2: It's usually, it could be two hours, hour and a half,
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 2: I think usually.
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: And who's there when you get there? Is Megan O'Leary
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: in there yet or not?
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 2: I guess, I don't know.
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: Do you have a meeting with the commission? Yeah, like
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: just take me through.
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 2: So I straight go in and walk in, find the
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 2: commission room. You know, obviously if I've been there before,
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 2: but if I haven't been, I'm working a place I've
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 2: never been, walk in, find the commission room, get my assignments.
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 2: When the fighters come, I do my one-on-one rules meeting.
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 2: With each fighter? Yeah.
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: Wow. Every fighter on the card.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 2: Every fighter I have on the card.
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 2: So usually we'll go with the average is three fights
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 2: on a card, right? I've had more, you know, less
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 2: if a cancellation, whatever, but go over the rules, ask
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 2: them if, you know, they have any questions then, you know, uh,
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 2: depending on what state, mostly now you do also, you
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 2: do RO like the, a review official. And what does
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 2: that mean? So it's like the instant replay, how we're,
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 2: we have instant replay now. And then, um, And then
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 2: the fight before yours, you usually do, you know, the
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 2: gate when they walk in, the check. And so you're busy. Mm-hmm.
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 2: Pretty much the whole time, yeah.
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: And will you have, like, do you eat before? Do
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: you have an energy drink? What do you do?
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 2: I don't have an energy drink, but some places I
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 2: eat before. Sometimes I don't eat before. It all depends. Like,
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 2: whenever I'm in New Jersey, there's a few restaurants I'll
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 2: have something. Madison Square Garden, I always go to the
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 2: same place. And I eat there. What is it? It's
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 2: a Molly Wee pub. And they have like Irish beef stew.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I get what you like. I like quesadillas with
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: almond flour tortillas. We like what we like.
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I get that. And then, you know, so.
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 2: And that like, like, to be an idea, like MSG,
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 2: I do the same thing every time. So there's a guy,
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 2: I wish I could remember the name of his company,
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 2: but I can't right now. But he sells shirts and
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 2: stuff outside. I go out and say hello to him
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 2: every single time. He's always out there, no matter how cold,
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 2: no matter what. The guy's out there.
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: He's awesome.
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 2: He's right on 8th Avenue. He's on the corner. And
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 2: then I say hello to him, and I go down
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 2: and get ready to go. And then I go to
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 2: the model, and then I eat, usually the beef stew,
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 2: and then get going. Yeah.
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm kind of a creature of habit in some ways,
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: you know?
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I am very much, you know, like, I use
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 2: the word, criteria and whatever but uh you know this
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 2: is how I do it and but almost everything I'm
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 2: like that really.
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: Hey discipline equals freedom man that's what Jocko Willink always.
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 2: Says yeah that's pretty yeah that's awesome.
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: And I think that's kind of true it's like if
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: you get up and get the things you don't want
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: to do done out of the day your day's so
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: different yeah you know yeah definitely um have you ever
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: been unable to do a referee a fight and for
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: what reason Before you go. Yeah.
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 2: Well, I have a story of, like, I reffed, but
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 2: I had, when I was reffing, I had two kidney
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 2: stones and staples, like, in my stomach. So it's a
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 2: crazy story. I had my appendix out when I was, like, 20,
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 2: and then a few years ago I had it out again. Yeah.
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 2: So they took out the appendix, but they left in
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 2: like a stub. So I actually had my appendix out twice.
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 2: It's pretty interesting. Or you got scammed one or the other.
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: Either way.
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 2: Either way. It was the same hospital. Fuck, who forgot
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 2: a little? I don't know. And it was bad, so
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 2: they had to like- Dude, that's nonsense. Yeah, that's real nonsense.
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 2: And the fact that when I asked, you know, I'm like, hey,
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 2: does this happen? They're like, it does. I'm like, oh.
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 2: So- I also at the same time had kidney stones.
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 2: So I did a recovery and so everything was kind
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 2: of miserable. And I had a big show, an event
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 2: coming up. And it was an important one for me.
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 2: A fight? Yeah. A fight. And then it was just
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 2: a little meeting to me. It was local and I
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 2: had the main event. It was just... So I decided
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 2: in my head I was going to do it. So
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 2: I ended up getting... the doctor that I was going
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 2: to see every two days for the recovery to say
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 2: you can do it. And she was like, you can
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 2: do it. I said, great. But the staples were getting
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 2: really tight, so I took a few of them out
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 2: from the top.
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: By yourself?
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And then it was easy, though. They were coming
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 2: out already.
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like Build-A-Bear.
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just put it together. Boom, boom, boom, boom. And then,
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 2: so then.
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 2: But the kidney stones started kicking in really bad. It
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 2: was just a weird time. And so the night before,
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 2: I'm like really panic button. I'm about to say I
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 2: can't do it. But I hung in there. So the
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 2: next day I get there. And then the pain's kind
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 2: of starting to go away a little bit. So I
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 2: get to the event. I get the fights in the
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 2: main event like I was hoping. And awesome fight. place
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 2: that I've always wanted to work and so the bathroom
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 2: is like attached like the fans and us were using
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 2: the same bathroom so I walk by and they're like
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 2: ah Keith you're the man so I walk into the
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 2: bathroom and now I'm feeling pain like.
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: Real bad so from the kidney stone yeah.
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 2: So boom I pass it it goes ta-ting yeah yeah
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 2: it hits the thing all good for that like well
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 2: the pain was still there but it felt so much
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 2: better yeah and I was walking out and the you'll
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 2: shoot your eye out and the kids like the kids
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 2: were like oh you're a legend and all I can
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 2: think of is you should have saw what just happened
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 2: in there dude like and crazy and then the event
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 2: went great and then um And then I passed the
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 2: other one because I had two on the way to
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 2: Seattle the next week in the plane.
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. You got to save one for when you travel.
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 2: Just miserable. But yeah, it's kind of a funny story.
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 2: And then the appendix out was pretty funny because even
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 2: it was actually almost ended up being bad because I
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 2: was telling people what was wrong with me because I was.
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: Oh, and they thought it was already done.
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 2: That was already done. So they kept skipping over that. And, yeah,
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 2: so it was a week or so, and I was
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 2: pretty infection by then, you know, caught in. But it
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 2: was fine, and everything worked out great.
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: Dude, that's wild. Just to know, if people want to know.
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: if some of these referees are tough or not. This
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: guy's passing kidney stones between fights in the bathroom. That's
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: pretty unprecedented. Keith Peterson, man, thank you so much, one,
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: for always making me feel welcome when I'm at the fights.
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: It's such an honor to get to see you guys, man.
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: Will you agree with this, that it's one of the most,
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: the people that make that, that are part of that
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: company that put that event on, it's pretty spectacular.
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: It is.
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 2: Like, yeah. Some of the T-Mobile.
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just all so special.
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 2: Everything about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: And you see the same people over and over again,
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: and it really does feel like a family over there.
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is.
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: Does it feel like that to you? Yeah, yeah.
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 2: You know, as we figure it out, I kind of
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 2: keep to myself. Right. But there's some people I see
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 2: every time that are really great people, and I speak
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 2: to them briefly, and it's a really.
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: Tight knit. Thank you so much for all your efforts, man.
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: Thanks for continuing to just support wrestling. And I think
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: that it's just, you know, you being out there just
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: inspires other young people to get into it and just having, like,
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: so much history yourself in it. And, yeah, thank you
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: for letting us talk about your family and stuff today, man. And, yeah,
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: cheers to many more years of being on the journey, man.
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. Thank you.
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: You bet.
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 3: Now I'm just floating on the breeze And I feel
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 3: I'm falling like these leaves I must be cornerstone Oh,
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 3: but when I reach that ground I'll share this piece
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 3: of mind I found I can feel it
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 2: In my bones