Goodbye to Everyone

By:  | Posted: Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 3:09 am.

Well this is my farewell from the Fight Network.  While I will not miss what has happened
or transpired at the company, I am really going to miss some very special
people that I have come to know and respect in my short time with them. 

The Fight Network started out as the vision of Mike
Garrow.  Mike’s vision for the
network was one of the reasons I decided to leave refereeing and start a new
career in commentating and analytical work.   Mike has an incredible energy and is always coming up
with new ideas and he did a miraculous job in getting The Fight Network from a
simple idea into a fully functioning cable channel that covers the sports of
Mixed Martial Arts, Boxing and Professional Wrestling 24 hours a day.  It is very hard for anyone not
associated with something like this to understand how much really goes into 24
hours of programming.   Mike,
thank you for the opportunity, thank you for believing in me, you will always
be a friend.

Mauro Ranallo….. Wow.   I don’t really think many people truly know how talented
Mauro really is.   First off,
he loves all combative sports, and he knows them better than most people.  He is incredibly smart and has a
photographic memory that makes the rest of us look retarded.  Most people on TV are reading
everything they are saying from a teleprompter.  A very handy little gadget that fits in front of the camera
lens and displays the words you are suppose to say.  All you really have to do is know how to read and keep
things moving.  Mauro does not have
or use a teleprompter.  Mauro looks
over a complete page filled with information and then systematically runs it
down like he had 2 days to memorize it in only 60 seconds.  He is remarkable.  He has the ability to make bad fights
good, good fights great, and great fights legendary with his commentary.  Mauro, thank you for helping to teach
me the trade.  I listened to every
word even though I was not smart enough to remember it all and was not
fortunate enough to work with you near as much as I would have liked.

John Pollock is usually one of the behind the scene guys,
but he has been stepping out and doing a lot of the commentary work while Mauro
is away.  John is like an
encyclopedia when it comes to Professional Wrestling and really knows his stuff
when it comes to MMA.  John, I just
want to say thanks, you really have a great future ahead of you and I feel
fortunate that we were able to work together.  I want to thank everyone else at The Fight Network for
bringing me in and making me feel at home.  There are a bunch of great people working there, John
Ramdeen, Chris Tapanila, Chad Midgley, Anthony Ciccone, thank you I am going
to miss working with all of you.

Last but not least I want to thank all the people that watch
The Fight Network and log on to the website and read the blogs.  I hope you have enjoyed what I have
written about.  You may not have
agreed with it, but it was all written honestly.  I hope to stay in the sport of MMA for the rest of my life.  Is that possible, hell I don’t really know?
I have made mistakes and will probably make some more in the future, but I can
assure you that I always try to put the sport of MMA first.  I do not make statements or give
opinions based upon whom I am working for, I always say the way I feel about
things, some people like that and some people don’t,

A few people have said that I have attacked the UFC.  That is simply not true.  I have never said anything bad about
the UFC.  I spent 14 years of my
life trying to build up the UFC and make people understand how incredible the
fighters of MMA were.  I considered
myself very lucky in the fact that I was able to be around the UFC for as long
as I was and you never know maybe I will go back to refereeing and someday work
another UFC.

To all of the higher ups that have taken over the Fight
Network over the last year I only have this to say………….. Shame on you………………

CATEGORIES:Editorial