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Choosing to make your living as a fighter isn’t an easy decision, and Tyson Pedro says his father made sure to give him a brutal test before signing off on his son’s desired career path.
The 31-year-old successfully returned from a nearly four-year layoff last year when he stopped Ike Villanueva in the first round. Pedro had been sidelined with a knee injury following his 2018 loss to Mauricio Rua, but his leg appeared to have recovered perfectly when he used kicks to set up finishes of both Villanueva and Harry Hunsucker in his most recent fight.
The light heavyweight is now set to compete in the featured prelim for UFC 284, which will take place in his native Australia. Pedro’s father John has been in his corner throughout his career, and on a recent episode of UFC Connected the 31-year-old revealed that his father had some serious reservations about letting his son try to earn a living as a fighter.
“I got into boxing at Black Town Hit Squad, and my hands started getting pretty good,” Pedro said. “I was thinking ‘Oh, I wanna try for the Olympic team.’ I started skipping school to go train and box full time. At that stage he didn’t want me fighting. Him being one of the promoters at the time, he knew there was no money in it.”
Father Put Tyson’s Toughness To The Test
Rather than sit down and try to talk Tyson out of his desired career path, John Pedro decided to offer his son a straightforward test: survive five minutes of sparring with him, and then he’d be allowed to fight professionally.
John admitted on UFC Connected that he “basically wanted to break” Tyson in order to dissuade him from fighting, and it didn’t take long for the future UFC light heavyweight to end up flat on his back with a few teeth missing.
Tyson’s father John has been a part of his fighting journey since the very beginning. (Richard Dobson/News Corp Australia)
“It was like an overhand right and my eyes glossed over, and he just looked at me and I was just like ‘Oh shit.’ I was crying, full bawling my eyes out. Yeah, that was a bit traumatizing as a kid (LAUGHS). But afterwards I remember he took me out the back and he was like ‘All right, now I’ll let you fight. I’ve seen that you made it.’ And I was like ‘That was bullshit.’ (LAUGHS). He just felt bad he knocked me out. Thanks Dad.”
Pedro was originally set to carry his two-fight winning streak into a matchup with Mingyang Zhang at UFC 284. After “Mountain Tiger” withdrew the 31-year-old was matched up with Modestas Bukauskas, who will be making his return to the UFC after a successful run in Cage Warriors last year.
UFC 284 includes Australian fighters in all but a few of the scheduled matchups, and the card’s headliner will see Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski attempt to claim a second title when he takes on Islam Makhachev for the lightweight belt.
What do you think of the way Tyson Pedro’s dad tested his son before allowing him to become a professional fighter?
Please provide transcription credit with a link to this article if you use any of these quotes.
Choosing to make your living as a fighter isn’t an easy decision, and Tyson Pedro says his father made sure to give him a brutal test before signing off on his son’s desired career path.
The 31-year-old successfully returned from a nearly four-year layoff last year when he stopped Ike Villanueva in the first round. Pedro had been sidelined with a knee injury following his 2018 loss to Mauricio Rua, but his leg appeared to have recovered perfectly when he used kicks to set up finishes of both Villanueva and Harry Hunsucker in his most recent fight.
The light heavyweight is now set to compete in the featured prelim for UFC 284, which will take place in his native Australia. Pedro’s father John has been in his corner throughout his career, and on a recent episode of UFC Connected the 31-year-old revealed that his father had some serious reservations about letting his son try to earn a living as a fighter.
“I got into boxing at Black Town Hit Squad, and my hands started getting pretty good,” Pedro said. “I was thinking ‘Oh, I wanna try for the Olympic team.’ I started skipping school to go train and box full time. At that stage he didn’t want me fighting. Him being one of the promoters at the time, he knew there was no money in it.”
Father Put Tyson’s Toughness To The Test
Rather than sit down and try to talk Tyson out of his desired career path, John Pedro decided to offer his son a straightforward test: survive five minutes of sparring with him, and then he’d be allowed to fight professionally.
John admitted on UFC Connected that he “basically wanted to break” Tyson in order to dissuade him from fighting, and it didn’t take long for the future UFC light heavyweight to end up flat on his back with a few teeth missing.
Tyson’s father John has been a part of his fighting journey since the very beginning. (Richard Dobson/News Corp Australia)
“It was like an overhand right and my eyes glossed over, and he just looked at me and I was just like ‘Oh shit.’ I was crying, full bawling my eyes out. Yeah, that was a bit traumatizing as a kid (LAUGHS). But afterwards I remember he took me out the back and he was like ‘All right, now I’ll let you fight. I’ve seen that you made it.’ And I was like ‘That was bullshit.’ (LAUGHS). He just felt bad he knocked me out. Thanks Dad.”
Pedro was originally set to carry his two-fight winning streak into a matchup with Mingyang Zhang at UFC 284. After “Mountain Tiger” withdrew the 31-year-old was matched up with Modestas Bukauskas, who will be making his return to the UFC after a successful run in Cage Warriors last year.
UFC 284 includes Australian fighters in all but a few of the scheduled matchups, and the card’s headliner will see Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski attempt to claim a second title when he takes on Islam Makhachev for the lightweight belt.
What do you think of the way Tyson Pedro’s dad tested his son before allowing him to become a professional fighter?
Please provide transcription credit with a link to this article if you use any of these quotes.
Click here to view the article.
The 31-year-old successfully returned from a nearly four-year layoff last year when he stopped Ike Villanueva in the first round. Pedro had been sidelined with a knee injury following his 2018 loss to Mauricio Rua, but his leg appeared to have recovered perfectly when he used kicks to set up finishes of both Villanueva and Harry Hunsucker in his most recent fight.
The light heavyweight is now set to compete in the featured prelim for UFC 284, which will take place in his native Australia. Pedro’s father John has been in his corner throughout his career, and on a recent episode of UFC Connected the 31-year-old revealed that his father had some serious reservations about letting his son try to earn a living as a fighter.
“I got into boxing at Black Town Hit Squad, and my hands started getting pretty good,” Pedro said. “I was thinking ‘Oh, I wanna try for the Olympic team.’ I started skipping school to go train and box full time. At that stage he didn’t want me fighting. Him being one of the promoters at the time, he knew there was no money in it.”
Father Put Tyson’s Toughness To The Test
Rather than sit down and try to talk Tyson out of his desired career path, John Pedro decided to offer his son a straightforward test: survive five minutes of sparring with him, and then he’d be allowed to fight professionally.
John admitted on UFC Connected that he “basically wanted to break” Tyson in order to dissuade him from fighting, and it didn’t take long for the future UFC light heavyweight to end up flat on his back with a few teeth missing.
Tyson’s father John has been a part of his fighting journey since the very beginning. (Richard Dobson/News Corp Australia)
“It was like an overhand right and my eyes glossed over, and he just looked at me and I was just like ‘Oh shit.’ I was crying, full bawling my eyes out. Yeah, that was a bit traumatizing as a kid (LAUGHS). But afterwards I remember he took me out the back and he was like ‘All right, now I’ll let you fight. I’ve seen that you made it.’ And I was like ‘That was bullshit.’ (LAUGHS). He just felt bad he knocked me out. Thanks Dad.”
Pedro was originally set to carry his two-fight winning streak into a matchup with Mingyang Zhang at UFC 284. After “Mountain Tiger” withdrew the 31-year-old was matched up with Modestas Bukauskas, who will be making his return to the UFC after a successful run in Cage Warriors last year.
UFC 284 includes Australian fighters in all but a few of the scheduled matchups, and the card’s headliner will see Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski attempt to claim a second title when he takes on Islam Makhachev for the lightweight belt.
What do you think of the way Tyson Pedro’s dad tested his son before allowing him to become a professional fighter?
Please provide transcription credit with a link to this article if you use any of these quotes.
Choosing to make your living as a fighter isn’t an easy decision, and Tyson Pedro says his father made sure to give him a brutal test before signing off on his son’s desired career path.
The 31-year-old successfully returned from a nearly four-year layoff last year when he stopped Ike Villanueva in the first round. Pedro had been sidelined with a knee injury following his 2018 loss to Mauricio Rua, but his leg appeared to have recovered perfectly when he used kicks to set up finishes of both Villanueva and Harry Hunsucker in his most recent fight.
The light heavyweight is now set to compete in the featured prelim for UFC 284, which will take place in his native Australia. Pedro’s father John has been in his corner throughout his career, and on a recent episode of UFC Connected the 31-year-old revealed that his father had some serious reservations about letting his son try to earn a living as a fighter.
“I got into boxing at Black Town Hit Squad, and my hands started getting pretty good,” Pedro said. “I was thinking ‘Oh, I wanna try for the Olympic team.’ I started skipping school to go train and box full time. At that stage he didn’t want me fighting. Him being one of the promoters at the time, he knew there was no money in it.”
Father Put Tyson’s Toughness To The Test
Rather than sit down and try to talk Tyson out of his desired career path, John Pedro decided to offer his son a straightforward test: survive five minutes of sparring with him, and then he’d be allowed to fight professionally.
John admitted on UFC Connected that he “basically wanted to break” Tyson in order to dissuade him from fighting, and it didn’t take long for the future UFC light heavyweight to end up flat on his back with a few teeth missing.
“It was like an overhand right and my eyes glossed over, and he just looked at me and I was just like ‘Oh shit.’ I was crying, full bawling my eyes out. Yeah, that was a bit traumatizing as a kid (LAUGHS). But afterwards I remember he took me out the back and he was like ‘All right, now I’ll let you fight. I’ve seen that you made it.’ And I was like ‘That was bullshit.’ (LAUGHS). He just felt bad he knocked me out. Thanks Dad.”
Pedro was originally set to carry his two-fight winning streak into a matchup with Mingyang Zhang at UFC 284. After “Mountain Tiger” withdrew the 31-year-old was matched up with Modestas Bukauskas, who will be making his return to the UFC after a successful run in Cage Warriors last year.
UFC 284 includes Australian fighters in all but a few of the scheduled matchups, and the card’s headliner will see Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski attempt to claim a second title when he takes on Islam Makhachev for the lightweight belt.
What do you think of the way Tyson Pedro’s dad tested his son before allowing him to become a professional fighter?
Please provide transcription credit with a link to this article if you use any of these quotes.
Click here to view the article.
