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Music.

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Thank you so much for joining me with another episode of Spill With Me, Jenny D.

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June is for jocks, inspiring athletes, and I'm just so delighted.

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I mean, Mike Murray is my guest today, and he drove 40 minutes to be on Jenny D.

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I did. It's an honor, and I'm flattered to be here with you.

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I've seen your podcasts on the computer quite a few times, and like I said, I'm honored to be here.

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Mike, you know, when I looked at your profile and I saw all these things,

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I thought, wow, this is somebody, this is a known Pittsburgher that had,

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well, he's in West Virginia. Well, no, actually New Kensington, Western Pennsylvania. Okay,

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but the things he's done, oh my gosh, the stories.

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So we're going to start first, just a little bit of your upbringing and how you got into fighting.

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Well, to start with, I was raised in a small community in western Pennsylvania,

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Vandegroof, Pennsylvania, until I was in sixth grade.

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My mom, being an alcoholic and a single mother, the Children's Bureau took me

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off of her and placed me in a foster home.

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The first foster home I was in for about nine months, and then they transferred

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me to a farm in Belvernon And with some very strict Polish Catholic people who

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believed in work, work, work. Right. And playing, you don't have time to play sports.

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When other guys in the summer were going to the pool or playing ball,

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I was belling hay and stringing fences and stuff like that. How old were you?

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Sixth grade through my junior year. Oh, wow. So I kind of got into sports later,

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although I did wrestle for two years in high school. I got into boxing, karate.

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But later in my life, I ended up fighting until I was 53 years old.

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Jesus. So how did you get into fighting? That's what I want to know.

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Well, being a foster child and being scrawny when I was little because I was

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kind of neglected at times. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Oh, no, no. Don't be silly. It made me a stronger person.

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That's what caused a lot of the street fights, you know, being teased or whatever

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you had to. Unlike today, some kids today, you had to toughen up and fight.

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And I did, and I was pretty good at it.

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You mean just like somebody that was bullying? Somebody would say something

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to me, and I think it was a lot of built-up frustration from the way I was raised.

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I get it. I would snap somebody quick.

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And I got quite a reputation. Don't mess with Mike. Well, even the guys that probably could have taken me

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really didn't want to fight because they knew they'd have to fight.

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A lot of bullies will only bully when they can get away with it.

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Right. And I clipped that the first time. Nice. When somebody would do that.

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Nice. And like you said, I had a reputation. So I went into amateur boxing when

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I was about 19, 20 years old. I boxed for four years out of Sharpsburg,

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Pennsylvania, and New Kensington. And then I seen a sign one day for a tough man contest.

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Tough man. I love that. In New Kensington. Actually, it was tough guys.

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Oh, tough guys. I have to correct that because there are tough man contests

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today, which are a lot different than what we did.

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Okay. Ours was almost like a legalized street fight.

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Anything went, and there were only two weight classes back then,

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175 and under and 176 and over.

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So a guy that, in my case— What were you? 148.

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My opponent was about 165 or 170, I believe.

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You're a tall guy. You must have been really thin. I knew that going in that

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I was, you know—another case would be a guy 178 fighting a guy 310.

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Oh, my. It was pretty wild.

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And Dave Jones and I, who are good friends today, he's from the North Huntington area of Pennsylvania.

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We were the first fight, sanctioned MMA fight in U.S. history.

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Oh, my gosh. We didn't know it at the time.

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We didn't know it until 30 years later when we found out we were getting inducted

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into the Pittsburgh MMA Hall of Fame. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

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Now, tell us what MMA stands for.

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MMA is mixed martial arts. Mixed. So what does that mean?

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Well, it incorporates in a ring where you have a boxer that's just boxing and

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wrestling. You just have wrestling. In MMA, you have wrestling. You have striking. You have kicking.

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You can choke a guy out. Oh, my God. It's pretty much like a legalized street

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fight. I don't know if I could watch it because, you know, back then,

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there was like, you could do whatever, right?

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I mean, there was probably like blood flying around. Did you have gloves on?

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We had. Or did you tape your hand? No, no. We used four-ounce chops, they were called.

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Like today's MMA are four-ounce gloves.

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Okay. Now, when we started, we were delegated by the commission to wear headgear for safety.

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Today, you don't have to wear headgear. What do you think about that? I don't like headgear.

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No? No. Okay. No, it's binding at times. I was going to say,

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does it really protect you? There's a debate on that. Some people think it protects you and cushions and

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blows, but other people think it makes the impact even greater.

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You know, with the headgear switch. You only have one head.

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If the headgear is loose and you get hit, it's like being hit and then hit again.

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Oh, my gosh. But, like I said, I fought in that fight, and I lost to Dave.

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So you and Dave had that fight. What was the year?

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It was March 20, 1980. Look at you, March 20, 1980.

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It was actually a three-day event where they had three different nights,

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and there was probably 60 or 70 people involved in this.

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Dave and I happened to be the first fight ever. Ever. Ever. That's amazing.

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Right. And when you watch it, a lot of people will ask me today,

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you know, who's your favorite MMA fighter?

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And, you know, do you watch it? And I really don't.

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Dave and I started this sport. We were the pioneers because of two promoters,

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my karate instructor, Frank Caligiuri.

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Okay. Who is a 10th degree master in martial arts. Wow. And a fellow named Bill Viola Sr.

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He's from the Irwin area. And he's a master also. Oh, my gosh. These two guys got together.

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They were putting on kickboxing shows and karate shows.

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And they would go into bars or places, and they'd put up posters while they're in there.

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Guys would be saying, oh, you know what? I know a guy could kick his ass.

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So what they decided to do. They're like, hey, I know Mike. Where are you?

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They sat down one time, and they just said, you know what? Why don't we have

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a contest where we pull a boxer, a wrestler, a street fighter, a bummer guy?

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Let's just throw them all in the ring and see what happens, see who wins.

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And that's how the idea came about. And so they put up ads and radio announcements,

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and they thought, well, you know, they'll probably get 50, 60 people.

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They had 200 calls the first day.

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Oh, my. They had to hire secretaries just to take in all the incoming calls.

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It was New Kensington, PA. It was in New Kensington. Like they had an arena or something there? Well, no.

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The first, and a lot of people are surprised to hear this, MMA started in Western Pennsylvania.

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It started in a ballroom of a Holiday Inn in New Kensington, PA.

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It was the first MMA fights in this country.

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And then they had the finals at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh a month later.

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They were at the Holiday Inn? Yes. Like in their ballroom? Yes. In New Kensington?

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Right. Wow. Now, we were fortunate in 2011.

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Well, 2010, myself, Dave, and a group of the guys who were in the first fight

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were inducted into Pittsburgh MMA Hall of Fame at the Maroonville Convention Center. A year later...

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They opened a display at the Heinz History Center, which is a branch of the

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Smithsonian Institute, and they put a display.

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I was fortunate enough to have my picture in my shirt I fought in.

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And that display is right across from Franco Harris's uniform.

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Oh, my gosh. So it was a big honor. What an honor, yeah. To be included with

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guys like Mazze Ross, Deacon Manny, Starge, I love you.

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I told you I got a famous guest here. I was in the right place at the right time. Yeah. That's all.

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You worked hard, though. I mean, I can't imagine. Like, what was your mindset

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when you would go into the ring? Being the first, being the first fight was actually a little nerve-wracking

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because when you go in the ring for the first fight,

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they have to introduce all the dignitaries, this one and this one that's in

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the crowd, and then the national anthem.

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So you're up there for about 10 minutes, and you're pumped, ready to fight.

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Your heart rate. Yeah, and you have a little bit of anxiety because you're waiting.

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You just want to get in there, yeah. In the documentary that Showtime did.

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The anticipation of it, right? Oh, yeah. I mean, you get butterflies. And I said in the documentary,

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Showtime did a documentary on us called Tough Guys.

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Oh, that's right. And it was on for two years, and it's available on Amazon Prime now.

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Nice. And somebody told me it's on Apple TV, but...

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I said in a documentary, if you don't have butterflies before a fight,

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you shouldn't be in that ring. Yeah. You have to have that adrenaline pump, but you have to be able to control

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that adrenaline and that nervousness. Right.

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You have to channel it into a positive. Like anything you do in life,

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any sporting event, being I was a theater girl, getting on stage,

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you have those butterflies, but I wasn't risking my life.

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I wasn't getting punched around. Well, we had a good fight.

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I lost that fight, and Dave was a polished karate kickboxer,

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and I wasn't used to losing at anything.

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I mean, I wouldn't let anybody win in checkers.

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Well, they're three years old, Mike, and I don't care. I don't care.

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You're going to earn it. So I went on to take karate, and I dabbled in it for

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about a year, and then I stopped. And then I went back at age 46 and fought until I was 53, and I was fortunate

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enough to win five Pennsylvania state titles.

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Wow. And I was ranked nationally four times.

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In 2001, I was ranked second in the nation, national champion runner-up.

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Oh, my gosh, Mike. But I took a pounding. Yeah. And my body feels it today.

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I was going to say, you know, we were talking about this off air, though, too.

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You've had some health issues, too, along the way.

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And did your family ever say, Dad, or, you know, your wife say, you need to stop?

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Did they try to push you to stop? No. Because they knew you wouldn't.

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No. Well, the last year, the last year I was told, even though I won my fifth

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state title that year, and I was ranked, I think, fifth nationally,

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I was taking a lot more hits.

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My injuries weren't healing. Of course, I never took care of them anyway.

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God bless you. Thank you. I didn't rehab stuff.

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Growing up, when I played sports, I played at the basketball courts, I'd break my ankle.

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I'd go to the hostel, they'd put a plaster cast on back then.

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Yeah, back then. The old school plaster cast. I would take it off after two weeks and wrap it with a nice spinach.

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You'll play ball again and people say, what's wrong with you?

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I know. See, I like milk it when I have an injury. I'm like, I am hurt.

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Well, I wish I would have. I wish I would have rehabbed my injuries better.

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But like I said, it was a different era.

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And young people then were, especially athletes were, it seemed to be tougher mentally than today.

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So today, I mean, I do boxing shows and I get guys that will say to me, oh, you know, Mr.

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Murray, I'd like to be on your show. I'm going to fight. I want to fight.

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And then they're on Facebook for six weeks telling everybody they're going to

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fight and their girlfriends and everybody. And then the week of the fight,

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strange things happened.

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My mother died. The dog ate my blood work. Yeah. Okay. I mean,

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you'll hear every excuse in the book. So then they chicken out. I just had a guy at the last show here a few weeks ago.

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He came to the weigh-ins. He came the day of the fight.

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And then we were having the meetings, and the commissioner has to call out everybody's

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name. And they were asking, where's he at? Where's he at? And they're looking around. Yeah.

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His coach texts me and says, he just decided he doesn't want to fight. I'm sorry.

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What? So you have a guy, his opponent who trained.

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For six or eight weeks, and he has family there and friends there.

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Now I have to go in and tell this guy, your opponent, you can't fight because

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your opponent, just they're not mentally as strong. No, you can't do that.

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You know, just the work ethic, you know, you can't just, I guess it's easy access now.

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People are like, oh, you know, like you said, they come up with excuses or I

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can't make it, I can't do it. But, you know, you are letting down so many other people.

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You know, you have to think about that, like you. you i mean you did

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all this work and all this publicity got this all this training and

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stuff like that and you had the facility and everybody oh you

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know waiting for this and that's that's tough that's gonna be my most most real

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fighters and myself too i would rather get my ass kicked excuse my language

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to walk away and you know and be afraid i mean everybody has a fear or,

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like I said, anxiety getting into a ring.

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And if you find that it overtakes you, then maybe you should be playing pickleball.

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Okay? It's not your sport. You're so funny.

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I love it because you tell it like it is. You're not like— Well,

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not everybody can be a fighter. Sure you can. Just like not anybody can be a

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basketball player, football player. Right. If you're not good at it and you don't think you want to give 100%,

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then don't do it. Right. Did you ever go to Vegas and fight?

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No, I've been to Las Vegas, but not fighting. Because there's a lot of fights

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there, I feel like. No, I fight. Is it more boxing?

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Mostly boxing there. At TMJ, I was lucky.

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I was a corner man for one of the fighters that we had signed under World Ranked

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Boxing. I was a corner man. What's a corner man?

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Corner man is a guy that, when the fighter comes back. Do you mean like in Rocky and Apollo?

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Or what's his name, his trainer? Oh, you got it now, Jenny.

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No no yeah the guy when you come back mickey mickey i couldn't think of you

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come back and take the mouthpiece out of you you're doing great.

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It's easy for them to say yeah go out you're not throwing the left hand you're

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not out there but i was lucky enough to help corner a fighter in the mgm green

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garden room which is where all All the main fights, Mayweather, Pacquiao, Klitschko.

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And I came to the ring right before this guy's fight, Justin Lopez,

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and I knelt down in the corner and I heard somebody say, are you going to be

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my guest or partner during the fight?

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And I turn and look and it was Layla Ali.

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Oh, my gosh. Layla Ali's daughter and Sugar Ray Leonard.

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Oh, my gosh. And right away, being a, I collect autographed pictures and stuff.

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A lot of people say if there's a celebrity, Murray will have a camera and a sharpie.

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So, but. They'll be looking for you and getting your autograph.

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I wouldn't know. Yeah. Actually, you know what? Now that you said that.

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You know, I think when you're growing up and you're in sports and everything,

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you dream that someday of, oh, I'd like to sign an autograph.

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And when that started happening, it was actually really an awkward feeling,

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you know, to have somebody come up. It was flattering, but it was awkward, you know. What do you mean?

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Oh, because you didn't feel like it. No, no. I mean, I was in the right place

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at the right time to do what I do.

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And it's, like I said, it's very flattering for somebody to ask it.

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But it's embarrassing a little bit. Yeah, and I never thought about that, Mike. That's true. There are some people,

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and you always feel bad about asking somebody for an autograph because you don't want to bother them.

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Whenever I would approach a pro-athlete, a movie star, whoever,

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I would always say, would you honor me by signing this or signing that?

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A lot of people don't have that, what's the word I'm looking for,

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that... Demeanor that they're not like... Well, they'd run up to you and throw

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a paper into somebody's hair, sign this, sign this.

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It's like they were obligated to sign something for you, and they're not.

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That's true. That's true. It is an honor. Yeah, I always tried to do it the

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right way when I did, and I only had a couple times where somebody just told me no.

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If they tell you no, you say, I'm going to fight you.

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Well, I'll tell you who it was. I'll tell you who it was. Because I was doing

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personal security at the Morovo Convention Center for iced tea and cocoa.

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And that same day, I had to help Lynn Swan.

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I had to do it. No way. And I went down in the parking garage and met him, took him upstairs.

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And the promoter says, take him in the back here. We're going to take some pictures

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first before we take him out into the crowd.

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And on the way up to the podium, it was Lynn Swan.

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Yeah. And I said to Mr. Swan, I had a shirt I went on bond for my son in a football.

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I said, would you honor my son and I by signing this? And he said,

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as he's walking now, he's not stopping, we're walking. He said, no.

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I'm surprised I wouldn't know. I thought he was joking. I said,

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may I ask why? He said, what's in for me?

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And he asked me that. And when I got up to the podium where we were going to

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sit, another fellow named Curtis Smith, a martial artist.

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And Lynn was going to do a presentation and leave right by the podium.

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And I won't tell you exactly what I said to him, but I caught his attention.

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Yes. And he looked at me and I said, you're a jerk. Right.

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Yeah, but that was really the only bad time. Linda Blair from The Exorcist, I did.

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Tell us about, how does the song go? Dun Dun Dun.

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The exorcist? No, no, no. The one with the chainsaw and the white mask. Oh, that's...

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Mike Myers. Well, Michael Myers. I met him. I forget how the song goes.

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Halloween. Oh, yeah. The Halloween sound. I'm not a singer. Somebody has to

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send it to us because I forget how it goes. Hey, I was going to be a singer.

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But no, I mean, Linda Blair was great. Three days.

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Michael, I didn't do Michael Myers. I just met him. But Kurt Angle, great guy.

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I helped him. I was honored. or do I help him for like five events, five years in a row?

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I want to get him on my show because I don't know if he remembers me because

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when I was working, when I first got out of college, I was working at UPN and KDK.

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And I was doing sales, trying to sell airtime.

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And I had a client that had a little storefront in Century 3 Mall and I can't

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think of what it's called, but it was all about, because, oh my gosh,

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WWE or whatever it was then, was so big. Big, so big, like bigger than I even

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imagine with The Rock and everybody. But Kurt Angle was only in his beginning part, and he went to the mall,

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and he signed autographs. The line was all the way out the door,

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and I was like, Kurt, thank you so much.

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You know, that was so many years ago. He's a great guy. Great guy.

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I told you prior to this interview, he would bust my chops a little bit,

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and he would say, I have to go up to the podium to do a presentation,

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Marie. very easy. You got my back, you know, like he needs me.

21:37

Yeah, right. But it was for insurance purposes they had.

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So you were like a security guard? I did personal and executive security over

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the years. I mean, Mike, I'm going to hire Mike to be my security guard.

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Well, we'll negotiate the terms. I can't avoid them.

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But no, we, again, at these events, you had to have security for insurance purposes.

22:02

Right. And I did, like I said, press security for Linda Blair, Ice-T, and Coco.

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And when I did it, when I knew I was going to do that for Lin-Suan and Ice-T,

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I'm thinking, wait a minute, wait a minute. I had a great football player over here, good personality, and then we have a gangster rapper.

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This guy's going to be a jerk. He was the opposite.

22:22

He was so nice when I told him what...

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Len did. Yeah. He said, whatever you need, sign for your family,

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friends, whatever you sell. Oh, that's nice. And he was real nice about it. Right. You know,

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sometimes I just, I believe that sometimes people are having a bad day, you know.

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And maybe they just, I give people the benefit of the doubt a little bit because

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now doing this podcast, I feel like we don't know what somebody's going through.

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So it's really hard for me to be, you know, I never have that,

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like, you get disappointed. You know, you get upset because you just,

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you know, all you're asking is for a signature.

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You're not asking for, like, you know, blood or your firstborn child.

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I'm lucky to have it at home. I have a wall in the room. I have 110 8x10 signed photos.

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You have to get mine. I will. I will.

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Dorelli Stones. Oh, my. Frank Sinatra. Oh, wow. One of my favorites, Donald Trump.

23:21

No. No, I've been very fortunate. It's like a 40-year collection. Yes, that's so great.

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And you know what? That's memories, you know, through your life.

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They are. They are. And a lot of them are signed, just signed.

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And there's no stamps. These are all hand-signed. Yeah.

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And most of them are signed Mike. So my son Mike, I told him,

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I said, this collection, you know, you can tell everybody who you met him. Right, right.

23:49

Yeah, they'll be like, wait, who is that? You know, by the time his kids get,

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like, who is that person? So tell us a little bit, too, you know, and if you don't want to talk about

23:57

your health issues that you've gone through. No, I don't mind. Because, you know, when we were talking about that,

24:02

you've had some serious complications.

24:07

Well, cancer ran in our family, and I didn't know a lot about my family.

24:12

Biological family because, like I said, I was in a foster home and I was away from my relatives.

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So a lot of times a doctor would say, did you have a lot of cancer or did your mother have diabetes?

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I don't know. I don't know. I wasn't with them.

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But I was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2009 and I had lost a kidney. I had a kidney removed.

24:36

And my other kidney had I had a couple little tumors that I had to go in a few

24:41

months later, and they notched them out. Then I found out I had hemochromatosis, which is too much iron in your blood.

24:49

That's how I found out about kidney cancer.

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My iron levels were over 2,000, which was extremely high.

24:56

But I had to go nine months.

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I had to get a phlebotomy or give a bag of blood every 10 days for nine months

25:05

to drain the iron. and I didn't eat meat for nine months. You got to be very disciplined.

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But today, like I said, it was- How are your levels today?

25:15

Perfect. Perfect. I had to work hard at it to get my health in order.

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And today, like I said- You changed your lifestyle. Very lucky.

25:26

Well, yeah. Recently, I cut out sugar altogether and my doctor was real pleased.

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But the last visit, my A1C was 6.9. Nine, so it was from eights and nines. That's good.

25:40

But yeah, the hemochromatosis, I deal with that. I donate a bag of blood every

25:44

four months, and that keeps my levels.

25:47

It's a genetic, it's hereditary disease. Is it really? Okay.

25:50

My kids have it, but they only have- At least they know now, you know.

25:53

Yeah. Well, they have to do the same thing. You said, thanks a lot, Dad.

25:57

Yeah, Dad. Thanks for passing that on to us. And then I found out why everybody

26:01

in my family died of cancer, cancer, cancer over the years, because iron is

26:07

very bad for you, and it stores in your liver or organs.

26:11

So back then, the doctor told me,

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It wasn't a rare disorder. It was rarely diagnosed.

26:19

Right. So a lot of my family that didn't know they had it.

26:22

No, and that's hard back then. And we think about all the technology and all

26:27

the testing and stuff we can do now. And Pittsburgh's the best with healthcare is the best.

26:32

Well, I had to go there from the kidney cancer. A cell went to my lung.

26:36

And then I thought, oh, geez, I got lung cancer now.

26:39

But it was renal cancer that transferred to the lung. It was a primary like

26:45

that. Now, when was this after the kidney? That was in 2018.

26:49

But I went to Pittsburgh, AGH, and I went in there, and the very renowned doctor,

26:55

Benny Wexler, did the surgery, and I went home the next day.

26:58

They just cut it out of my lung. You were like, I'm done. Tell the listeners. We were talking about this off

27:05

air. Tell the listeners. I mean, I hate to say the word COVID.

27:09

COVID. I'm going to whisper it. But tell us about what happened to you during that time. In my opinion on COVID,

27:14

COVID is just another flu that was politicized.

27:19

There's a lot of people that agree with you. Yeah, there was a virus,

27:21

COVID virus. I didn't take any COVID shots. I was going to be vaccinated.

27:26

I didn't wear the mask. It was silly. You went in a restaurant and you sat down

27:31

and you could take it off. But if you stood up, I mean, come on, man.

27:35

Yeah. So I developed COVID, contracted COVID in October of 21.

27:41

Yeah. and i waited three weeks to go to the hospital i was sick for three weeks and,

27:47

finally i i went to the hospital it was definitely not like the flu right but

27:52

no doctor prescribed a z-pack and it didn't do anything yeah so finally when

27:59

i went to the hospital i passed out in a waiting room i couldn't breathe i was

28:03

sucking for air oh my gosh and i uh,

28:07

I woke up, and I was looking around, and I knew that I was in the hospital.

28:12

And I said to the nurse, I said, oh, you kept me overnight.

28:16

And she said, you've been here 18 days. Oh, my God.

28:19

So I was in a coma for 18 days, and I was on a ventilator for 14 days.

28:24

And I was very, very lucky through a lot of power of prayer,

28:29

a lot of friends, to survive.

28:31

I lost 60 pounds.

28:36

And I still have a long-term COVID effect, weakness in the back of the legs.

28:42

I developed neuropathy from that.

28:46

A lot of people have from that, yes. The therapy people would come in and say, give me a walker.

28:53

I want a nice, oh, no, see if you can sit up on the edge of the bed.

28:58

They were like, the therapy was a joke.

29:00

Well, they wanted you to take little baby steps.

29:03

Well, I didn't want to. Yeah, I know. You're a tough guy. He's a tough guy.

29:06

So finally one day they said to me, I said, why don't you let me try to walk

29:10

with the walker? And they said, okay. I think they wanted to show me up.

29:14

They said, see if you can take a few steps with the walker.

29:18

And I walked the whole way out into the hallway, and the nurses and the aides

29:22

were out there, and they started to come up. Because it was inspirational, I guess to them. But then I turned around and

29:28

come back, and the guy says, I can't believe you did it.

29:30

Well, I told you three weeks ago, let me do this.

29:33

How old were you, honey, when you had? COVID?

29:37

I had COVID in 21, 2021. So that was about three, was that three years ago? Yeah.

29:43

October, November, I had it. And I was in the hospital for six or seven weeks.

29:49

So you were in your 60s. Yeah. Yeah. Well, see, I'm 72 now.

29:53

You look great. I'm 69. Thank you. Thank you. So you, I mean,

29:58

and you overcome that. You went home, right?

30:01

And you were like, I'm not using this blocker. I went home. Like I said, my wife was a nurse.

30:07

And she had COVID at the same time, and it was kind of hard on her to take care

30:12

of me at that time. Right. But she would do something for me.

30:16

I didn't have to go lay down because she was sick, too.

30:20

It made you so tired. She gained a little over a pound a day when I got home. Yeah.

30:25

That's good. Get your energy through. I threw the walker out in the backyard after eight days.

30:32

I'll leave my hangout. The therapist said, oh, you're going to be on that for

30:35

five weeks. Yeah, I don't think so.

30:38

So, I mean, again, like I said, you have to have a positive mindset, and you don't quit.

30:44

You know, I prayed, and people prayed for me, and they said that I survived because I was a fighter.

30:52

Well, when I woke up, I was a fighter, but when I was in a coma, God saved me.

30:56

Yeah, I believe that, too. Thank goodness, because you're here today on Jenny D.

31:02

Thank you. And again, I really enjoyed this, and thank you for having me.

31:08

I love it. Now, Mike, one last question.

31:11

I want you to tell the listeners and the viewers and anybody out there,

31:17

any sport, definitely like MMA fighting,

31:20

what would you tell the young people that are in that, I'm not going to say

31:24

profession, but I guess it's a profession, yeah, or in that ring that's doing it now?

31:30

What would you tell them? I would equate that to anything you do in life,

31:35

not just in sports, MMA, boxing, whatever your job is, is to give 100%.

31:42

And if you truly like the sport and what you're doing, it's not a job.

31:49

This is not a job to me. This is my passion. It's an enjoyment.

31:52

And just like I said, some of these guys, they want to tell everybody they're

31:57

a fighter, but when it comes time to fight, they shy away from it.

32:02

Just don't put pressure on yourself with fear. You have to control the fear.

32:10

And if that's not for you, that's okay.

32:13

Then you pick a different sport or a different job or whatever. It's not for everybody.

32:19

Right. So I've been told I like to fight. I really don't like to fight.

32:24

I didn't like to fight growing up. I fought out of necessity growing up. Right. I just was lucky to be good at

32:31

it. Okay. But I never liked it.

32:34

Yeah, I mean, like you said, to each their own.

32:38

You find your way, you find your passion, you find something that just thrills

32:42

you to get up every day and say, oh, my gosh, I'm so excited for this day,

32:46

just to be a part of it and be around the people that are also doing it.

32:50

Well, I have a son, a younger son, Michael.

32:53

He's a weightlifter. He was a really good athlete. He had scholarship offers for baseball.

32:59

When he was a sophomore, he was throwing a baseball 93-mile-an-hour.

33:03

Oh, my gosh. Needs control. Wow.

33:05

And a football coach seen him out playing balls, catching ball and everything

33:10

one day, and he asked him, why don't you come out from football?

33:13

He said, I never played football. Well, my son was so good at sports, he adapted.

33:18

Oh, he's an athlete. They made him a punter. He led the district with a 41.3

33:23

average punting. Oh, my gosh. He was a wide receiver. He held for place kicking, but he tore his ACL in his

33:31

seventh practice. He had practice, and there went his baseball,

33:36

because rehab was about a year or so.

33:39

He got involved in weightlifting. He was about 165 pounds at the time,

33:44

and today he's benching over 400 pounds.

33:48

Wow. He's 220, and he doesn't take steroids.

33:52

Oh, my gosh. It's all natural. Yes. Oh, good for him.

33:55

You have to be so proud of your children. I am. I am. They got to be proud of their dad.

34:00

Their dad is a tough guy. My daughter, April, is a very beautiful young lady.

34:06

And when I first started using the computer about 10 years ago,

34:12

I was old school. I'm still learning it.

34:14

And I would call her and Michael all the time. Hey, how do I do this? How do I do that?

34:20

And they would say, why don't you get a computer, Dad? I'm tired of answering

34:24

all these questions. Yeah, right. One day, my son was home, and we had an old box computer. And he said,

34:31

look, I'm going to show you how to do this. So he said, you make this mouse and you move this thing.

34:36

So the arrow wasn't going where I was picking it up. I was doing that.

34:40

Going like this. And he goes, what the hell are you doing?

34:42

I hate that mouse. And he walked out of the room. He said, this is too painful.

34:48

Just call me. Hey, you tell him, I taught you how to drive. I taught you how to walk.

34:52

I taught you all these things. You can help your dad. Well, he's a good son,

34:56

and he's got a little girl now that's going on two years old.

35:03

He's a supervisor where he works, and he does everything the right way.

35:09

I wish I was as good as he is today. I wish I was as good growing up.

35:14

Oh, you know what? Yeah, but your path was different.

35:17

It was. And God chose that because he knew that you were going to persevere.

35:22

And be who you're going to be. You don't use those as excuses.

35:26

I use that actually as a motivation.

35:30

Yes, I like that. When I grew up. No excuses. No.

35:35

Just motivation. Yes, I love that. It's true. And you know what?

35:38

I wish I would have had your mentality, too.

35:41

Because, you know, as a woman, you know, I've always, like, I shied away from

35:46

anything, like, controversial. You know, if anybody's fighting, I'm always like, I got to get on in there.

35:51

You know, like, I don't like to see fights. And I always feel bad when I see

35:55

the boxing or, you know, the MMA fights. I'm like, oh, my gosh, are they okay?

35:59

Well, I guess you won't be getting any free tickets.

36:03

I'll just wear my blinds. No, it's entertaining, like I said.

36:09

I'd love to go. Safety stuff is used. The pros don't use headgear and everything.

36:14

But if a fighter is prepared and he's in shape, the guys that are out of shape

36:19

and don't take the sport seriously are the ones that are in danger of getting

36:23

hurt more. You have to train. I mean, you have to train for your profession, for what you're doing in life.

36:30

You have to train for that. And, you know, you just, you know, this right here, what we're doing right here

36:35

is we're having a nice conversation, getting to know each other.

36:38

And I was just, you know, and I'm so glad that I had you on my show.

36:42

We're going to do this for another two hours. You don't want to hear, you don't want to hear me for two hours.

36:48

Nobody wants to hear. I wasn't talking about you, Jenny. Oh, great.

36:50

Okay. Mike's going to take over this show. I'll see you guys. I'm going to lunch.

36:55

Give me the microphone. No, no, I'm joking. No, no.

36:58

It was a pleasure to be on here with you. And like I said, I was flattered that you invited me.

37:03

And I look forward to seeing the finished product.

37:07

Yes, absolutely, Mike. I just really appreciate you coming out today and sharing your story.

37:13

Because there's other people out there that can be inspired by you,

37:17

that can be motivated by you. So I give you, like, all the props.

37:22

Thank you. I'm just so thrilled. And I hope you all enjoyed this episode today

37:28

on Spill With Me, Jenny D. day. Take care.

37:31

Music.