John Pedro shrugged and said he never intended to stab his son in the chest.
Put him in a coma?
Of course, there is a reason for this.
twice.
Same deal when he breaks the boy’s nose, or has him pluck two front teeth from the blue canvas ring floor.
In this case, spectators inside Pedro’s Western Sydney Coliseum petitioned to stop the game.
But old man, he didn’t.
“No, f—off,” John snapped, just before he asked his boy’s hand to say teeth to the man in the corner.
“There are 80 seconds left in this round.”
Tyson Pedro was so bloody, toothless, and kept fighting.
As before, when he was about fifteen, he looked down and saw the broadsword the old man was carrying—usually a heavier cannon—not only stabbed into his chest, but deeply wedged.
Watch UFC 278: Usman v Edwards 2’s main event live, available on Kayo and Foxtel on Sunday, August 21 at 12pm EST. Order now >
“It was an accident though,” giggles John now, as he sits in a Sydney cafe this Friday next to his son, who has lifted himself up, the scar on his chest, and it’s all Australian One of the most recognized UFC careers.
“It should be a trick.”
“That’s right,” Tyson shot back. “A magic trick.
“Come and watch this knife disappear into my child’s chest.”
Of course it’s fun.
However, that wasn’t enough to give his father the slightest pause.
No, you should know, John Pedro is a guy who grew up in 1970s California, between warring gore and lameness.
A heavily tattooed hooded rat – his words, not ours – not only grew up in the house parties everyone carried, but he himself was swept up in the first two years after immigrating to Australia. bound.
In short, a guy who is no stranger to self-defense.
What about assassinating his son?
“I have a knives throwing trick,” John said, gesturing away from his body with his right hand. “Then catch it with my left hand.
“And most of the time, it worked. But that day, I guess my left hand was a little slow…”
To be fair, that’s pretty rare for the 56-year-old, old-school karate and jiu-jitsu guy with seven black belts.
One of them, which he only gets after a Harley-Davidson spoke has passed through each forearm.
The first part of the test also involved attaching concrete blocks to each spoke – which Pedro then lifted so his trainer could smash them like a pinata with a sledgehammer.
But he conceded that things got worse with the knife again.
“Because like any father who just stabbed his son, I’m kidding myself,” he said with a laugh.
“However, men get breastplates for a reason, right?
“So I told him to go away.”
“No,” Tyson chimed in, “you blame me.
“I was crying, the knife was in my chest and you said it was my fault because I started the game.
“But I know the truth…you’re just worried about what mommy will say”.
“Of course I am,” Dad agreed. “Because your mother has been giving birth to your child”.
By then, the pair had once again vanished into those diatribe matches that only the greatest of mates knew.
The continuation of a morning also began before dawn, when they were already sweating.
The father and son arrived at the Ethos Performance gym at about 6 a.m. on a morning with boxer George Kambozos there, before training together as part of ongoing preparations for UFC 278.
Tyson, 30, will face American light heavyweight Harry Hensack on Sunday in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Like John, in his corner, a fight would not only continue the worst injury comeback in UFC history, but would be an incredible family story enough to make Hollywood producers, plural, want to buy it.
“There’s a couple, yes,” John revealed. “I also had a filmmaker from England reaching out.”
That’s because John Pedro not only nearly killed his son, he was the man who brought life to Australia’s mixed martial arts scene.
A burly American Samoan back in the ’80s, though he broke out as an Arizona linebacker himself, was called to a dying father’s bedside with one last request – please go get you done The Mormon Mission.
So in Australia, John Pedro came.
“And talking about God being the protector,” he giggles, “while thinking of himself as the middleman.”
Unsurprisingly, while his time at church was short, Pedro soon met Tyson’s mom, started training himself, and eventually launched “The Cage” with Tony Bonello. The King” – a groundbreaking MMA promotion with looser fighters, looser rules and, on a famous occasion, every ring girl a stripper.
Then there was the incident with the Panthers, just hours before the first game, when local lawmakers made cage fights illegal.
Still, the athlete was booked.
The table paid for.
So, with the cage walls removed, Pedro and a dozen teammates stood on the perimeter of the ring a meter above the ground, using rugby union crash pads to keep the fighter from falling.
“It was great until a guy was kayoed knocked out of the ring,” recalls John. “We thought he was dead.”
Thankfully, he wasn’t.
Still, it does little to help the cause.
“So for a long time, it was me, the hooded rat, arguing with lawyers, politicians, sports ministers,” he said. “I was alone, threatened with arrest, and everyone said MMA would never get off the ground.”
This seems unthinkable today when the UFC is worth $4 billion and Australia has superstars like Robert Whittaker, Alexander Volkanovsky and even the favorite, Ty Tuva Sarah – Coincidentally, he has a son with John’s daughter, Brierley.
All these Hollywood types want to tell.
Every time, however, Pedro Boys knocked them back. The unconvinced will understand the uniqueness of their story.
“Maybe they still won’t,” Tyson shrugged.
But still for the first time in real detail, the pair are talking anyway.
“Because that time I knocked out my son’s tooth and he got into a fight,” John said.
“He was dizzy and covered in blood and someone in the gym wanted to jump in and save him.
“But that never happened in my world.
“And why I told the boys to get out.
“The life I know, no one is here to save you.
“that is not real.
“And I want my son to know that when he gets up in life, when he actually gets up, no one’s going to be around him. Ultimately, that’s how it happens.”
He’s been a fighter since the day he was born, with one hand clenched into a little fist — “so it has to be Tyson,” Dad said, referring to the famous American heavyweight — Pedro’s career The career also begins with the firing of a cannon.
After winning his first four fights at the local fight scene — and all within one round — the much-hyped Penrith forward then went straight to the UFC, where he immediately won two more.
Again, all in the first round.
Among the picks was a stunning TKO suspension from Scot Paul Craig, who has now finished in the top 10 in the division for five consecutive years.
But Pedro?
With everyone suddenly screaming for the next big thing, he’ll lose three of the next four – the last one that saw him not only get stopped by Brazilian legend Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, but suffer an ACL tear.
Initially, he should have been let go for a year.
Instead, Tyson missed nearly four.
Not only lost to medical misdiagnosis, but also to the eventual Big Three knee surgery, and a comeback seemed so unlikely that even family members were urging retirement.
“So things got dark,” he admitted.
However, keep in mind that this is the same fighter whose two front teeth are veneered.
A guy who doesn’t want to quit his job, chooses to switch surgeons, drive a delivery van, drive a beer brand, then a restaurant, run a triathlon, rehab, read combat psychology, Paul Gallen, hike Machu Picchu, rehab more , trained in Thailand, traveled to Dubai and, most amazingly, witnessed the birth of his first child, daughter Giselle.
Along with wife Rosie — who not only supported and supported her husband but taught him to invest whatever little money they had — Pedro not only recovered, but signed for a much-hyped UFC comeback in January.
And then just 14 weeks before battle day, he fell.
important moment.
“I had a nervous breakdown,” Tyson revealed. “I never talked about it to anyone other than my next of kin, but it was so stressful.
“I had four years of worrying about my knees, money, feeding my wife and daughter…and now, finally, it’s time for me to win.
“So one day I just started drinking and that was it. I disappeared on the bender for days.”
You think, at some point, the fighter will be out on his own.
Same as he has always been.
But with Tyson unavailable after two, three or four days, Rossi didn’t take the chance.
So the guy she called to save her husband?
It’s the guy who knocked out his teeth.
“I still remember Rossi calling and saying ‘Tyson needs you,'” recalls John, who was working on a construction site in New Zealand when he called in February.
“That’s it.
“I dropped everything and flew right here.”
Tyson said: “Dad found me, opened the door and said ‘son, let’s work’.
“That’s it.
“The moment when everything changed”.
Of course, we now know that after 1,239 days — or the longest injury suspension in UFC history — Pedro won’t simply return to the Las Vegas Octagon, but beat American Ike by first-round KO Villanueva.
Then the next morning, head straight to the UFC Performance Academy for training.
“I never went to a party after winning the first time,” he said.
That’s why the fighter is now open to discussing those veneers, the scars on his chest, and even explaining that after 15 years of training, sparring, and fighting, the only person who makes him feel cold is his dad.
“Because while I know, of course, some people will have problems,” he said, “that’s why I’m here”.
The same is true of his old man’s upbringing when he turned head-on into a fire pit. Or while serving as prison guards, they drove around in armoured trucks, throwing gas grenades as they went.
When his parents were separated when he was 9, little Tyson would regularly run the 14km from his mum’s Cranebrook home to St Marys to be with his dad.
As in his teenage years, the two will live together in the apartment in Kingswood.
“Although it’s more of a shed than an apartment,” Tyson said with a laugh. “It was so small that I couldn’t stand upright in it and we had to share a bed.”
However, what John won’t share with his boys, at least initially, is a place in the fighting game.
“Because of my reputation, it’s about training the worst,” he said. “When you got out of jail, you trained with me.
“Gangsters, motorcyclists… I know fighting games can take everything from a man.
“That’s why when Tyson wants to fight, I have to test him.
“Look if he has the ball.
“If he resigns.
“But Tyson, he never gave up.
“He’s that warrior.
“When everything was taken from him, he was still fighting.
“This is him.”
At this point, the son plays another prank on those missing teeth.
“That’s love,” Dad said.
“Why,” the fighter shot back, “I kept thinking ‘Dad, can you stop loving me so much’.”
“How about when I held you as a kid,” John continued, now turning completely to his boy. “You never share those stories.
“While I’m crying for you to sleep…”
“Are you going to cry?” The soldier smiled.
“I cried just looking at you,” Dad confirmed. “I thought you were perfect.
“Obviously, at that time, I didn’t realize all your faults.”
Soon after, however, in a rare pause, John would lean over the table, lower his voice, and nod to his boy.
“That’s what I got,” he said.
“Of all the things that are against me and against my life, this child is my legacy.
“All my children are.
“Standing in Tyson’s corner in the UFC and seeing him in the bright lights, man, he’s gonna shine.
“As a father, I am very proud.
“It’s almost like I want to lift Simba into the air…”
“What?” Tyson interjected, giggling hysterically. “Are you calling yourself Mufasa?
“Actually, no, no, you mean Witch Doctor Monkey… You call yourself Rafiki.”
“Now son, you ruined my story,” Dad shrugged. “It would have been good.”
