How Don Frye Got Started in the UFC

Don, how did you, when did you, you started out, was like UFC 8? Was that your first fight? No, the first one in UFC. You fought boxing and kickboxing before that, right? No kickboxing. I did boxing. I think I had 8 fights and I'm thinking I was 2 and 6 or 2, 5 and 1. I don't know because I fought my first 2s Don Fry and I won those and then I had an argument with my trainer and so we split and then, so then I fought under JR Fry. Why'd you change your name? Oh, that was my name growing up. I was a junior so JR. That's how I was in, you know, junior high, high school and then, you know, when my dad and mom called me and then I think I changed my name because of contractual, you know. Oh, you had some deal with the manager. Yeah. There's a lot of those sneaky deals, huh? Yeah, but that was worth the trainer and, you know, I don't know if that was because they were really good guys. Art Martore was my money guy who, you know, they, they, the two Munos, Mike Munos and his father Al brought me to Art. Art wrestled at ASU back in the late 60s and Art, he's a billionaire, you know, and so he was interested and I mean he basically funds ASU wrestling. Oh really? Yeah. Oh, that's nice. Half his pocket, yeah. And he's done so much for amateur wrestling in the US. I mean, he's like the top dog because he used to have what's called Sunkist wrestling team and so that was his baby and he steamrolled that and then like I said, the Munos brothers or Mike and his dad took me to Art and Art said, let's give it a shot after he called. Geez, the coach said Oki State, Joe say to double, double check on me. So did you started out wrestling? Do you wrestle as a young boy? No, sir. When did you start wrestling? As a freshman in high school. And then when did you box? When I got out of college. Oh, so most of it was, you know, that's fairly late in life to box, right? Oh yeah, oh yeah. That's why I was two and six. So when did you hear about the UFC? I was a fireman, you know, I guess did the boxing and then got out and did certain odd jobs for, you know, a year, year and a half. And then my wife at that time, we had a couple of horses, you know, and being a college wrestler, you got a bit of an eagle on you. So I don't get, well, I could do that. So I started going around with a fair name Stoney Newfang and then Stoney got me interested. Then I got tired of that. I was really making good money, but you know, for the time he's given me five bucks a horse, you know, teach me, you know, pull the shoes, shape the shoe, you know, and all that good stuff. He did the technical work on the hooves. And then I said, you know, somebody told me about being a fireman, about, you know, working 10 days a month, you know, had a restaurant. So, hell, that's a job for me, you know. 10 days a month, I can do that. You're doing the 24 hour shifts? Yeah. You stay there at the firehouse? Yeah. Yeah. So I got on the phone, called up all the cities in the city of Arizona. Everybody was hiring. So I called up Santa Fe, New Mexico. They said, yeah, we're going to run a test. And so I went over there and tested and passed the test. And then I went to my buddy Jerry Peggenpaul. He's got me interested when I was in high school. Come over here later, please. There you go. I'll leave that over there for you. Thank you, sir. Bring your man. And so then I went and stayed at Jerry's house in Santa Fe. And I went through there, I think it was like a six month or more academy. You know. In the fire department? Yeah. Really? Six months? Yeah. Wow. It was a hell of an academy. It really was. And so from there, you thought about fighting? No, I had already fought. No, but I mean in the UFC. Oh, no. From there, we were there a year, year and a half. Couldn't afford to live there. You know, in Santa Fe, you're either real rich or real poor. You know, this is 30 years ago. So I don't know how it is now. But probably similar. Probably. Like the whole country now, right? Yeah. It's supposed to be nice though, Santa Fe. A lot of good friends from there. Beautiful. Yeah. You've never been? No, never been. Oh, you've got to go. I mean I've been at the gym driving through once. Really? Yeah. Where'd you drive? Where'd you drive through at? I was a kid. I don't remember it. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously you haven't gotten to see John Jones in it. No, no. Jackson Winkle, John. I want to go down there and check out the gym now. How come you haven't? Just a busy man, Don Fry. Just a busy man. So when you first heard about the UFC. So you were a firefighter then? Or? Well, back to the, back to the, you know. Well, like I said, we were in Santa Fe for a year, year and a half, and then couldn't afford to live there. And so I got on the phone and said, well, shit, you know, we still had horses, and still paying farrier. So, oh, shit, I can do that. So I found Oklahoma Horseshoeing School in Oke City. And so I moved my wife back home to my parents' house, you know, and I went to Oklahoma Horseshoeing School. For their 12-week program. Oh, wow. And so I did that, and then when I came back to Arizona, Sierra Vista, hooked up with a guy named, oh, Jesus, this is gonna kill me. Tyler Basinger. Tyler is a magician, is a farrier, just a magician. And he paid me $5 a horse, you know, and fed me lunch. And, you know, so I was learning how to shoe horses from him, you know, doing apprenticeship, starting my own business. I got on as a firefighter reserve, you know, with a place called Fry Fire Department, you know, FRY, no relations. The old man had an outpost store outside of Fort Wachuca, you know, 150 years ago, and also a whorehouse. This is like old-school Western shit. Wow. And so then I had, some time I worked at a psych facility, too, you know. Psych facility? Psychological. Oh, psychological facility? What did you do there, like, restrain patients? Yeah. What's harder, horseshoeing or restraining patients? Well, horseshoeing, I broke a kid's arm, so, you know, just the headlocks. You know, they did a breakout where, you know, 20 or 30 of them run off, and you got to hurt them back in. Really? Boy, a couple of them act out, and one of the guys had the kid restrained from you heading from behind, had his arm pinned, kid started slamming his head into his face. So I just walked up to the headlock, and we landed, snapped his arm. Oh, no. Yeah, that kind of put a damper on things. Yeah. Was that the end of your restraining patients? Yeah, that was in the end of that career. So how does it make its way to the UFC? Do you remember when you found out about the UFC? Yeah, I think that was still a year or two before. So this is like, 92, something like that? Yeah, and then I started doing judo, you know, because I needed something to do, you know. Right. You know, you're 22, 24 years old, you know, you used to be a college athlete, you know, you still walk around in an erection. Right, I understand. And so I started doing judo and advanced very quickly in that. And so then I got on the Bisbee fire department in 94. Bisbee, Arizona? Yeah, yeah. Shout out to Doug Stanhope. He's the king of Bisbee. Yeah. That's what I hear. I met him one time. Did you? Yeah, at the airport. Oh, yeah? Yeah, he says, you're a fireman. I used to be. This shit, this was probably 15, 18 years ago. Oh, wow. Yeah, where the hell are we now? So you were talking about when you first heard about the UFC? Yeah, 92 I got on with the Bisbee fire. And then we were sitting there watching something on TV and saw Dan Clippen Dan. Dan Severn? Uh-huh. And then he was doing some kind of bodyguard work for Robin, looking from who's a radio guy in New York City? Robin Quivers? Yeah. Howard Stern? Right. Oh, really? No shit. And his great t-shirt, yeah. Wow. Everybody says, Susan Dan is a great t-shirt. And so they, you know, then we saw Dan fight. And I called him up and said, fuck. You know, I said, Dan, this is Don Fry, remember me? I said, what are you doing, Don? I was just playing firemen, playing horseshoe, you know. I said, this UFC stuff, can you get me in on it? And he says, yeah. So he ended up getting me some fights, probably about five or six fights, you know, around the country. And you know, the check's still in the mail, you know. Was this pre-UFC? Yeah. Oh, so you fought MMA before the UFC? Oh, it was warehouse fighting. Yeah. And you were fighting MMA, is it? Right, right. So, right. And it used to be, is what they called it back then. Yeah, no holds barred, right. Right. So you wear shoes, you do whatever you want. Yeah, you do whatever you want. Was it bare knuckle? Yeah. Yeah. In your day, and even in the UFC 8, you were still allowed to fight bare knuckle. Yeah. Yeah. But I wore gloves because I hit hard. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Smart. Gloves aren't made to protect your face. Right. They're made to protect my hands. Who's the first guy to wear gloves in the UFC? Tank. Smart. Smart move. He hits hard. He hits hard. Yeah. Yeah. Holy shit, I remember your fight with Tank. What a fucking fight that was. My God. You know, and it didn't make top 10 of the one round fights. Oh, I have no idea why it doesn't. Well, it's because there's so many great fights. It's arbitrary who makes top 10, but I think it should have been in there. That was a classic. Nobody knows. Nobody knows anything about UFC 100 and B of War. Oh, I do. Well, you do, Joe. I remember all that shit. And you were there. I was there. The new fans. Yeah. They should go back because that's that's the history of the sport. Catch new episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience for free only on Spotify. Watch back catalog JRE videos on Spotify, including clips easily, seamlessly switch between video and audio experience on Spotify. 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