Issue 030

October 2007

Randy Rowe is a dangerous opponent in any fight, but these days as a mixed martial arts referee, when he enters the cage for a match, he’s all about seeing guys go home in one piece.

“I love it because I know the guys aren’t going to get hurt. Nobody loves the sport more than I do, this is my life, and I just want to make sure that guys get their full chance to fight,” Rowe said. “I hate seeing fights stopped and a guy is still ‘there.’ He got robbed, that’s his training, that’s his record. My whole goal is to make sure that each fighter gets to put on his best fight.”

Though the man they called ‘The Savage’ stands only 5’8”, he’s been in more fights than any record book will show and even claims to have gone toe-to-toe with former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia, long before he was the household name he is today. According to Rowe, the two men went the distance in a 12-minute, bare-knuckle fight that ended with Sylvia winning by decision.

“If he stood with me, I’d of knocked him out, but he didn’t. He took me down and laid on me – he was a lot stronger than me,” Rowe said of his fight with ‘The Maine-iac’. “I took a pretty bad beating in that fight. I thought I was going to lose all of my front teeth, but it was still one of the best days of my life.”

Rowe’s career as a fighter came to a tragic end in 2004 when he almost lost his life in his own front yard. He’d just gotten home and walked his kids inside the house when on his way down the driveway he was hit by a runaway car, driven by a woman who was passed-out on Percocets. “I was walking up to my mailbox and I heard a loud noise,” Rowe said. “Then I turned to see my fence just explode, a tree go down, a bush explode… I started to run and seek shelter, so I hid behind my truck, but then she smashed through that and the last thing I remember was the impact in my backside and then my stepfather waking me up in the hospital.”

He lost pretty much everything he had, and to make matters worse his stepfather died of a heart attack just three days later. Rowe’s body sustained more punishment than it had ever seen in all his years of fighting. The impact of the car tore tendons in his thumbs and broke bones in his wrist. It tore his ACL and lateral meniscus and he was left with herniated disks in his neck and a separated shoulder.

The road to recovery is ongoing, but these days Rowe is in good shape and good spirits. He still wants to fight, but won’t risk an injury that could prevent him from playing with his daughter or twin boys. “I’ve had a ton of surgery and [fighting] is still in question. I want to. I was born to do this but God’s really in charge of everything, so he might have a better plan for me.”

Today, Rowe trains over 60 students and is the head of Team Savage, an MMA fight team who set a state record for the quickest knockout at 0:02 seconds, courtesy of the heavy handed J.P. Cristini. 

Rowe said his decision to become a referee happened because he was tired of seeing good fighters getting jammed up by bad refs. He said, “I’m doing this for one reason, because I love the sport and I want it to keep growing, and bad referees are going to kill the sport.” Rowe recently worked a double shift, refereeing one show in Massachusetts on a Friday and traveling across two states to New Hampshire for another event on the Saturday. 

While refereeing is one of Rowe’s newest passions, he’s had plenty of practice. The past 12 years he has worked grappling tournaments for the North American Grappling Association and since his accident he’s stepped in the cage as an official more than 60 times. Rowe’s number one goal is to return to fighting one day, but he, his family and his doctor still have a few unanswered questions they’d like to clear up first.

He understands the sport inside and out, loves it with all his heart and in the mean time has found ways to give back both as a ref and a coach, as he did at a local show ‘Untamed’, refereeing in five matches and also cornering three of his own fighters in their debuts. “I love fighting, I really do, but for now God’s got me reffing,” he said. “Unless I get a call from one of the big shows, I’m just going to be the best referee in MMA.”