Let's Get It On!_ The Making of MMA and Its Ultimate Referee - Big John Mccarthy [148]
I told the TFN executives they needed to meet with Zuffa in person and apologize for the error. However, TFN didn’t take it seriously, and in the end it cost them big-time. Unable to secure press access to UFC 83, TFN tried to sneak into the event by renting the sports bar inside the Bell Centre, where Ranallo, Randy Couture (who’d been hired by TFN before me), and I hosted our prefight and postfight shows.
After the preshow, I met the contest winner and his girlfriend so we could all watch the main card together. I immediately felt bad for this nice couple, as our seats turned out to be about fifty rows up—the lousiest view I’ve ever had for an MMA event. The worst thing about it was that fans kept approaching me for autographs during the fights. It got so bad that the venue posted security guards at each end of my row. When each fight ended, the guards would let the fans into our row, and I stood there taking pictures the entire time. I felt bad for everyone sitting behind us, but I felt even worse for the couple. They were good sports for sure.
Besides promotional events like these, a couple media tours, one weekly appearance on the network’s radio show with Ranallo, and some radio interviews on other stations to promote the network, I wasn’t given much more to do during my employment with TFN.
I guess the silver lining was that I had more time to develop and refine the curriculum for COMMAND. I pored over fight footage, jotted notes, and continued to add to my PowerPoint presentation. Elaine and I began to host the three-day courses at our own gym, and I was surprised and grateful each time they’d fill up with eager students.
Graduation day for my son Ron from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department: three generations of law enforcement
I also got to spend more time with my family. My two eldest children were now out of high school, and I proudly watched my son Ron graduate with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Class 370 that April.
Still, this wasn’t what I’d signed up for with TFN. I’d taken the job partly because TFN had reminded me of ESPN when it had first launched, and we all saw what ESPN had grown into. Though I wasn’t a fan of professional wrestling, I thought the idea of a twenty-four-hour combat sports network was a good one.
My greatest concern was that TFN wouldn’t have enough work for me, and I knew I needed to stay busy. I’d opened the gym, but that was now up and running on its own, so I could commit the time to the channel. I offered to go up to the Toronto headquarters anytime they needed me, but I was assured there would be plenty for me to do in the States.
Instead, I sat around my office and kept calling to see if anything was happening. I was always told there was a lot coming up or the plans to create a satellite studio in California were moving forward or the channel was just about to break into the United States market, so I waited.
I wanted TFN to succeed, but I couldn’t do much from my gym in Valencia. I started to get the impression that they didn’t have the money to move into the next phase of expansion I’d been brought on to be a part of.
I didn’t like sitting around doing nothing. If you told me I could either have all the money I need for the rest of my life and not work, or work for the rest of my life and earn enough to make ends meet, I’d take the latter. I know that may seem crazy, but I honestly believe staying busy helps in keeping you productive and alive. I see people who retire and stop doing everything, and they just dry up and die. I had to stay busy.
Although TFN continued to underutilize me, there was plenty of activity in the rest of the fight community. With the success of The Ultimate Fighter and the UFC’s rising popularity, I was approached by a couple of fledgling