Name: UFC Referee Keith Peterson | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #620
Uploaded: 2025-10-26T18:24:48.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'UFC Referee Keith Peterson | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #620' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-10-26. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'UFC Referee Keith Peterson | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #620' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-10-26. Transcript available.

UFC Referee Keith Peterson | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #620

today's guest is a true renaissance man he's a father he's a mma referee he's a
musician
and he's a mechanic and he absolutely hates nonsense ladies and gentlemen mr no
nonsense
keith peterson
i'm sitting here with uh with the man no nonsense keith peterson um thanks for
joining me man no
problem i gotta ask you straight up dude is there how much nonsense is allowed
in in what in fighting
or life or like like what are your thoughts on on nonsense because you got the
name no nonsense right
yeah um i don't know there's a time and place i guess right uh but um i think
it like the no
nonsense thing is just you know my approach towards things and you know uh john
anick uh
gave me that nickname and it kind of just stuck and i think it fits you know
but you know there's
nonsense so you'll it'll allow a little okay depends during the holidays yeah
yeah yeah i guess okay
okay maybe on your birthday we can there's a little bit of nonsense allowed
usually most of the things
i do i do very straightforward and you know no nonsense i guess yeah i've i've
been involved in too much
nonsense and it's it gets a little hairy that's for sure um yeah john anick
gave you that name when
when was that yeah a few years ago um yeah we had a few conversations and then
i think on on air he said
it and it just seemed to take off and fit yeah and uh i think it does fit yeah
um you know nicknames are
weird but uh i've had a few yeah what are some other ones you've had when i was
little my nickname was
froggy from like the little rascals the voice oh yeah the little guy with the
voice i i've always had this
voice so uh yeah that was my nickname pretty much until i got older kind of
grew up some people still
call me that though yeah there's this girl moved in across the street and she
came over because she
wanted to play yeah that fits man that fits you're from uh new york long island
yeah yeah i'm new york
and i originally lived in like uh east meadow nassau county area and now i uh i
live in isolate new york
isolate and how did you get into referee and how'd that start for you um well i
fought amateurs for a
while and um for about three years um all different fights amateur level uh mma
fights muay thai fights
um kickboxing and then um we had a lot going on so it was getting harder and
harder you know to put the
time in and um someone just uh it's like oh i want you you know judge or or be
an inspector at at fights
at amateur fights or stuff like that and i was like okay that sounds cool i'll
be you know still be at
the fights and and then um i went took this course and the uh i was in new
jersey and um there was this
old referee uh donnie caroline he reffed a bunch of my kickboxing mma fights
and stuff donnie caroline
yeah he's um he passed away a few years ago and um he he was uh like you you'd
be really good at
reffing you'd be really good at reffing so i got my chance to ref you know a
few amateur fights and
kind of just took off from there and he was pretty supportive during the uh
amateur part of it were some
of those early bouts tougher was it tougher to referee then like is it
something that gets easier over
time what yeah i would always i i compare it to and i don't know if it's a good
comparison but
it would be like being a brain surgeon like you're not going to be as good as
you're going to be 10
years but no one could die yeah right pretty simple right and uh so you learn
lots and lots of little
things and so you're saying so you're not going to be as good as you're going
to be later but as
long as you don't let somebody die yeah you gotta you know stop the fight when
it's supposed to be
stopped and you know and and then the rules it all comes in as you go take me
on like an early
experience that was kind of like a lot for a referee yeah so for me my first
like a couple like um i
remember my first or second time reffing the fight was really even as amateurs
and really even and then
the kid was like you know losing pretty bad and i was like wow this kid's
losing pretty bad you know
this fight should be stopped and i was like oh no that's me and and i stopped
it and then uh and
then kind of from there you're like yeah you're the one in there you know
because it's you're up close
and like you know you have to adapt into a referee like um at first you know i
came out from fighting
so my mentality was like a fighter like as a fighter i didn't always agree with
the referee
like you know oh it's a good point because as a fighter you have a you're you're
just doing your
thing and you know especially you know at the high level like this is you know
it's their health their
lives the livelihood you know and all the dedication in the world you know that
it takes so you know
they're on a different journey that day than i am you know for sure and are
there fighters that will
tell you they'll come up to you before about and say like this is like do not
do this or do this you'll
get you know do not and then i just let them talk and then i you know do my you
know whatever uh my
criteria is i don't change it you can't no yeah you don't change is there one
fighter that's like do
not for anything like is there somebody that's just like let me go to the end
of the road every time
like somebody that stands out because it's kind of like there's been like not
to name any but a lot
a lot of times when they say don't stop this they usually you end up stopping
it it's weird or
they'll like tap or something they'll like you know like wow you know
especially when they say
you know oh i'm willing to die whatever but some guys are just quiet and just
you know that they're
there to get the job done and you know and as far as you know it's like as i
said a criteria you know
let's say you've watched a lot of fights like and when i'm reffing i'll say
like you have to move
and if they fit that criteria if they're defending and they can move you know
it's a fight my main
thing as i said this you know they're putting their health on the line i mean
my main thing and is to
have them fairly fight and you know health like them leaving and being able to
fight again or whatever
they want to do again right um you know be a family person like there's a lot
like besides me being a
parent myself it's the most important thing i'll ever do it's very important
and you know on the
outside it's just a fight but a lot can happen you know and so um you're kind
of like a safeguard yeah
and you know and it's like you're in there and as i said emotions from
everywhere right fighters corners
people who are there to watch the fight from you know you get a different vibe
from the people in
the front row from the people the back row right so it's a very emotional so
really i try to keep my
emotions aside and and you know just have this set thing of what i do each time
and you know
everyone makes mistakes you know i don't that doesn't make them acceptable
either like you know oh
everyone makes and they do and and i do but you know make a mistake
omit it and learn from it and move on is there a fight that you've had to like
you were like yeah
maybe that was a little earlier that was i didn't read it correctly or try not
to read it
totally into the early ones i don't have many where i'm like oh that that was
late i got um i'm lucky
uh that i don't really have one where i'm like wow that's not what i'm here to
do um so that that i'm
lucky but um you know to know as you get more experience you know like you'll
know when even like
sometimes someone's like i think that was a little early and you'll know right
in your head it wasn't
a little early like because you're there right next to them so you know you
hear all the sounds
that's a good point actually yeah you're right there i mean you're connect you're
you're right
there you're the closest person to it you can feel a different energy than we
can yes and and even
cameras i've done i've you know because i look at my work when i'm done with it
and i've watched five
different angles and like usually the only angle like there's one angle that i'm
like oh that's what
i saw yeah and the other angles are kind of maybe a little bit and then there's
one like closest to
where my eyes are and they are where you're like oh that's what i saw you ever
go back and uh
like with your lady make love to a fight to watch one or something like that
like that you know i'm
saying watch if like watch your work type of thing like a thing you know people
will like watch their
oh like watch it you know just to say wow i did great yeah no i don't look at
the ones i think i
did good yeah yeah what uh tell me a little bit about your life outside of
works i know you're in a
band i remember you telling me about it one time yeah i was in i was in two
bands it was my first
band we started in 1998 and my other one we've been around a pretty long time
too um what's that
band called the first one was called gfy and um the second one's loser
sometimes win and uh they're
like new york hardcore bands hardcore yeah yeah nice and where do you kind of
model them what is gfy for
uh go yourself oh yeah yeah i was younger younger than yeah yeah oh that was
fun huh dude where did
you guys play how did you guys get started um we uh long island guys and um we
uh met you know it's
like a music scene yeah and um we met uh no i was like oh we start something
and then we just started
and were you singing were you playing an instrument i sing you did so that
voice as part of
it was that one of the reasons you even got into singing just because your
voice was kind of different
or it's like it just happens to be that my voice kind of fit the hardcore thing
but i liked hardcore
way before that but uh kind of like i started listening to hardcore punk rock
music when i was
really young but yeah i was just into like i got into heavy metal and like
black sabbath and all
that and then when i started in my early teens i wanted to find something that
kind of like fit more
of where where i was and more like uh workers man like street music and stuff
so that's i found hardcore
and just fell in love with from then and you know i'm still still that's what i
listen to uh i listen
to every you know not everything actually i don't like people who say they
listen to everything but i
i listen to a lot of types of music but let's let's take a gander at some of it
let's take an ear gander
here at a little bit of it play that second one actually i like till i die
yeah i like that yeah you come in on this yeah i think right after the incident
yeah i think right after the
there's two singers in this band
yeah bro i like it
that vibe is a pure vibe dude that was like that's like one type of culture
that whole energy
and it's like silly too like the the intro that is the death march right and it
was like halloween and
i pressed this thing and that's what it was like so i went to my guys i'm like
yo play the death march
yeah and there you go what are the ladies like that would come to this that
come to those shows like
that's how i met my wife really yeah yeah oh it's a pretty good yeah yeah yeah
yeah that's it so from
right before the band started or whatever i met her and then where did you meet
her at like take me
through that at uh the band hate breed at a hate breed show hate breed yeah
bring them up they're famous
and are they out of uh new york no connecticut they're famous now pretty they
play
huge shows yeah i think i've heard their name before yeah um and so were you
guys just like were you
at the concession stand or were you just like kind of like i don't know if
there's a concession stand
but uh yeah yeah no yeah it's just tongue piercings and vodka and vodka um yeah
where'd you meet her at
uh at the show and uh just you know whatever the dance and what do you call it
the mosh pit
yeah and uh yeah and we just met and that was that yeah dude those pits are fun
kind of if you can
coordinate the pits do you ever do that when you're on stage where you're like
all right ever