Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Interview with 4-0 KOTC fighter Ernie Perea


By Bernie Calderon

It's early Saturday morning at a local Marie Calendars and I am awaiting King of the Cage fighter Ernie Perea to show up for our interview. To my surprise, a cameraman is setting up to film our interview. Ernie walks in and tells me a documentary is being filmed and he is a part of it. Ernie is gracious enough to sit down with me and talk about his last fight, his side projects, and the next KOTC event.

BC: Last we heard of you in MMA, you won the KOTC Super Fight by submission over Albert Hill. What have you been up to since then?
EP: Healing up, working, and spending some of that money I earned from my fights in 06 on my daughters’ quads.

BC: How do you feel about fighting in front of your law enforcement buddies and co-workers? Any added pressure?
EP: Yeah, it’s some added pressure. I would be lying if I said I don’t worry about it. But, fortunately things have been working out, and I have been winning. I don’t really realize what I had just done after my fights, until my home and cell phone start blowing up with calls from my friends and people who care about me.

BC: That match against Hill was one fans had been waiting for, so why were you disappointed?
EP: I fought like crap. I fought going backwards and I paid for it. Hill hit me harder than I had ever been hit during an MMA fight. I had two huge grapefruit size bruises on my ribs/kidney area for like three weeks after our fight. I hurt my back bad during that fight. I couldn’t get up or get Hill into my guard. It could of turned out real bad for me. I was lucky to win by choke. Hill’s record may not show it, but he is one tough guy to beat.

BC: What did your supervisors say when you come strolling back to work Monday morning?
EP: Without saying a word to me my supervisor walked up, grabbed my chin, moved it to the right, then to the left, and said; “Glad to see you are in one piece knuckle head, it looked bad for you for a minute!”

BC: You are known as "The Real Law" around the fight scene. Where did you get that nickname?
EP: Tyson Johnson at the Universal Grappling Academy gave it to me. I tried talking him out of it, but he just kept calling me it. As we were training for my fights, he would throw me around the gym and use phrases like, “What Mr. Officer man, you gonna quit, you gonna give up as you are fighting for your life on the street, let the bad guys hurt you.” Tyson can get into my head and push me to do my best. I guess he can call me anything he wants!

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

how did his guys do?