Gary ‘Big Daddy’ Goodridge Interview
Knocking Out Don Frye
Mar 21, 2004
DC: Looking back on your career you’ve had a whole bunch of
fights and honestly I’d be shocked and impressed if you remembered
them all, but what would you say has been your best one?
GG: My best fight was my last fight with Don Frye.
DC: Why?
GG: Because it was kind of like the last, final chapter to my career and it was written really well. I couldn’t have asked for a better, tougher opponent to fight and somebody that was been so significant in my MMA life because he had beat me twice before within the first year that I started. It wrote a good book for me.
GG: Yeah.
DC: Could you tell me a bit bout that please?
GG: Well I was called over I think in ’94, they wanted the world champion to go over and arm wrestle a hundred Japanese people so I went over and did it and then they called me over the next year to arm wrestle another hundred people and while I was going over in ’95 another company called and asked me to do 1,000 people.
The 1,000 people called, I let them set the price, I went over there and beat 1,000 people in an hour and 47 minutes and it was part of the contract that at 350 I’d have to do five in a row with one finger so I did. They gave me 14,000 for showing up and 14,000 if I beat everybody without a loss, even with the one finger.
DC: Did you?
GG: Oh yeah I did.
DC: Were they giving you pushovers or were these like the best guys?
GG: It doesn’t matter if it was a 1,000 kids, it’s still like curling five pounds 1,000 times it’s hard. Five pounds don’t seem like much but 1,000 times it’s hard.
DC: I know what you mean. When you fought your buddy Tom Erikson how were you able to turn on the killer instinct needed in the ring?
GG: Well at the time Tom and I weren’t such good friends back then. We were, but became really, really good friends after. The thing about it is, it’s all business I don’t have anything personal about any of the fights I’ve ever had. I do have something personal against Mike Bernardo if I was to fight him again, that’s about the only personal issue that I have. Other than that, my corner made Paul Herrerra, my very first match, a personal match, because they told me he was racist and so on and so forth, he belongs to some racial cult.
So it became personal so I wanted to beat him, I wanted to hurt him I wanted to beat the shit out of him. But really it’s a business and it’s like going to work, I’ve got a business to do and I gotta do it. No disrespect intended, no bad feelings, I got a job, I’ve got to do my job and I try to do my job as best I can.
GG: My best fight was my last fight with Don Frye.
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GG: Because it was kind of like the last, final chapter to my career and it was written really well. I couldn’t have asked for a better, tougher opponent to fight and somebody that was been so significant in my MMA life because he had beat me twice before within the first year that I started. It wrote a good book for me.
DC: I know you get asked this a million times and I almost
hate to ask it again, but you beat a whole bunch of Japanese people
in arm wrestling?
GG: Yeah.
DC: Could you tell me a bit bout that please?
GG: Well I was called over I think in ’94, they wanted the world champion to go over and arm wrestle a hundred Japanese people so I went over and did it and then they called me over the next year to arm wrestle another hundred people and while I was going over in ’95 another company called and asked me to do 1,000 people.
The 1,000 people called, I let them set the price, I went over there and beat 1,000 people in an hour and 47 minutes and it was part of the contract that at 350 I’d have to do five in a row with one finger so I did. They gave me 14,000 for showing up and 14,000 if I beat everybody without a loss, even with the one finger.
DC: Did you?
GG: Oh yeah I did.
DC: Were they giving you pushovers or were these like the best guys?
GG: It doesn’t matter if it was a 1,000 kids, it’s still like curling five pounds 1,000 times it’s hard. Five pounds don’t seem like much but 1,000 times it’s hard.
DC: I know what you mean. When you fought your buddy Tom Erikson how were you able to turn on the killer instinct needed in the ring?
GG: Well at the time Tom and I weren’t such good friends back then. We were, but became really, really good friends after. The thing about it is, it’s all business I don’t have anything personal about any of the fights I’ve ever had. I do have something personal against Mike Bernardo if I was to fight him again, that’s about the only personal issue that I have. Other than that, my corner made Paul Herrerra, my very first match, a personal match, because they told me he was racist and so on and so forth, he belongs to some racial cult.
So it became personal so I wanted to beat him, I wanted to hurt him I wanted to beat the shit out of him. But really it’s a business and it’s like going to work, I’ve got a business to do and I gotta do it. No disrespect intended, no bad feelings, I got a job, I’ve got to do my job and I try to do my job as best I can.
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