Let's Get It On!_ The Making of MMA and Its Ultimate Referee - Big John Mccarthy [155]
Valel, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt, had already been licensed as a referee in the Canadian province Manitoba with over 100 bouts under his belt, but he sought out the courses to improve. I could tell Valel was an exceptional student because of the questions he asked in class, so when he called me a few months later to ask how he could become a certified instructor, I listened.
Valel spent the next sixteen months traveling from Manitoba to Valencia on his own dime and earned the teaching certification in August of 2010. He referees in his province and has made it onto some of the bigger shows throughout Canada. He’s a phenomenal representative for COMMAND and also for the future of officiating in MMA.
It would be easy to say my life would have been easier if I hadn’t left refereeing and essentially the UFC, but I know I would have missed other opportunities. COMMAND continues to grow, and our gym has expanded to 28,500 square feet, which makes it one of the largest mixed martial arts facilities in the country.
My eldest son, Ron, became a judge for California’s growing amateur MMA program in 2009. In 2011, we sat side by side to officiate a Strikeforce event together.
I’m closer to my father and mother than I’ve ever been in my life. And I’ll become a grandfather myself this October.
In life, I’ve taken chances, then faced what happens next. I do sort of live by the words I preach: Let’s get it on. Opportunities abound if you’re open enough to notice and go for them.
Officiating a fight with my eldest son, Ron, at a Strikeforce event (January 2011)
It’s been a long journey since the beginning. I have many things I’m proud of and some things I wish I could change, but that’s exactly what life is all about. We have highs, and we have lows. I’ve told everyone over the last eighteen years that I’m a lucky man, and I couldn’t have had a more exciting or fulfilling life thus far.
The one thing I want everyone to remember in the end is that all the things I’ve shared with you in this book involved people who were brave enough to take a chance.
When I talk with people about certain fighters or other figures in the sport, I’m sometimes taken aback by statements that someone should have done something better or differently. I always remember that hindsight is twenty-twenty. You will always have a clearer picture of how something should have been done once you have the entire story, but that’s not the way life works.
Life is about experiences and family: at my daughter Brit’s graduation with Elaine, my father, and his wife, Sandra
I always give credit to the doers of this world, the people who took a chance and strove for greatness. Sometimes it’s a fighter, but many times it’s just the average person who simply believes and takes that first step toward something greater. Everyone has it inside of them; you just have to believe it.
For this book’s last call, I give you my favorite quote of all time. This is for everyone who’s taken a chance, faced both victory and defeat, and continued to move forward—because you will never know until you try.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.