Submitted photo

By Ray Hamill — It’s been a long and winding road to get to where he is, but Ryan Petersen has finally found a home for himself, both in Humboldt County and in the ring.

Last weekend, the Hydesville resident fought at the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) event at the Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula and won his featured fight.

Petersen won with an unanimous decision over Matthew Socholotiuk and improved his record in BKFC to 2-0.

But it hasn’t been an easy path to success for the local fighter, who first got noticed after last May’s Bear River Casino Resort fight night.

“I’m a nobody from nowhere and I’m doing cool things that I set out to do,” Petersen said. “I’m a guy who had the odds stacked against me.”

If that was once the case, it’s clearly not anymore, and Petersen is quickly establishing himself in bare knuckle fighting, where is ranked No. 47 in the world at 165 pounds.

But it hasn’t been an easy path.

The 39-year-old fighter was born in Fort Bragg and moved to Piercy after being adopted.

But he endured a difficult childhood, moving to Washington with his mother after his parents split when he was just 5 years old.

After dropping out of school after the eighth grade, Petersen by his own admission was headed down the wrong path without much parental guidance.

“I was getting into trouble,” he admitted. “At the time, my mother was getting evicted out of apartments and she went into a deep depression.

“I hung out with the wrong crowd and basically I was going down a path that was going nowhere fast.

“But what turned me around is I started going to the gym, knowing that I didn’t want to put my life in the direction it was heading. I didn’t want to go down that path.”

As a teenager, Petersen moved back to Humboldt to stay with his father and he began dating his future wife Laura, who has been a big influence in his life.

He began to compete in the sport of kick boxing in his 20s, and when bare knuckle fighting was legalized in the United States in 2018 for the first time in well over a century, Petersen knew that was a sport he wanted to compete in.

“As soon as I saw that, I told my wife, ‘I’ve got to do that, it’s right up my alley,’” he said.

The sport became legal in California in 2023 and last year it arrived in Humboldt County at the Bear River Casino Resort, where Petersen fought and quickly earned a name for himself with a dominating victory.

Shortly after his appearance at the local casino in May, the BKFC, which was founded in April of 2018, asked fans of the sport to tag on social media the fighters they would like to see fight.

“I had hundreds of people tag me,” Petersen said. “And a week later (BKFC) got a hold of me and offered me a fight.

“I had a tryout before I signed a contract and when they saw me they said ‘you need to come fight for us.’”

The Humboldt County fighter made his BKFC debut in November of last year and won with a second-round TKO, which earned him a three-fight contract with the organization.

Submitted photo – Ryan Petersen celebrates his win last week with his cornermen Jay Jauncey, left, and Sep Khademi, right.

“They’ve treated me well. They’re a great company to work for,” Petersen said of BKFC. “And they are invested in me.”

Last weekend’s fight, which went the distance of five three-minute rounds, was broadcast all over the world, including on DAZN, Fubo and Amazon Prime.

“It was a great fight,” Petersen said.

Petersen’s personal life has turned around from his teenage years as emphatically as his fighting reputation has grown.

He now lives on a small ranch with Laura, and the happy couple have been together for 20 years and have two young children, 5-year-old Rambo and 3-year-old Callan.

The family live a self-sufficient life on their ranch, with Petersen also working as a manager at COSCO.

With his 40th birthday fast approaching, Petersen knows his time in the fighting game is limited, but he says he feels like he’s in great shape and is hoping to keep going for another five years or so before retiring from the sport.

“I feel really great,” he said. “And I just signed a multi-fight deal with (BKFC).”

Petersen trains mostly on his ranch — The Pistol Pete Ranch — and works with his trainer Jay Jauncey, who is based in Vancouver, Canada, as well as with his pad man Joe McCastland out of Next Level Boxing in Eureka.

He also works closely with Lookchang Sitchang out of Redwood Muay Thai in Fortuna.

He hopes to be back in the ring in the near future, perhaps at an upcoming BKFC event in Italy in April.

“I’d really love to be on that card,” he said.

For now, however, he is continuing to prepare and train at home, while enjoying a sport he embraced relatively late in life.

“I love it,” he said. “In my core, this is what I was born to do.”