NO HOLDS BARRED

NO HOLDS BARRED on PodOmatic

On this edition of NO HOLDS BARRED, host Eddie Goldman speaks with Dr. Margaret Goodman, Chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Dr. Goodman, a neurologist who is also the former chief ringside physician for the Nevada commission, has just written an article entitled "What Happened to Doing Our Homework?" for the boxing web site SecondsOut.com (for which I also produce SecondsOut Radio). The article begins to address the controversy surrounding former heavyweight boxing contender Tommy Morrison, who has claimed that his positive test for the HIV virus conducted for the Nevada commission in 1996 was inaccurate.

After an almost 11-year hiatus, Morrison returned to the boxing ring Feb. 22. 2007, in Chester, West Virginia, in a bout sanctioned by that state's athletic commission. He also fought in a fight billed as a "mixed martial arts" bout, although it was not held under MMA rules, this past Saturday, June 9, at the Yavapai-Apache Nation's Cliff Castle Casino in Camp Verde, Arizona. In numerous published reports, Morrison's former agent, Randy Lang, has alleged that recent tests have again confirmed that Morrison is HIV-positive. Morrison has disputed that charge, although he has not made public any tests to refute Lang.

In a lengthy discussion, Dr. Goodman addresses what we really know about the Morrison situation, and whether someone today can go from being HIV-positive to negative. We discuss the latest round of positive doping tests this week involving Johnnie Morton in MMA and James Toney and Danny Batchelder in boxing, and the apparent rampant drug culture in both of these combat sports. We discuss what can be done to combat these health and safety dangers, including what promoters should be doing. And we discuss the question of federal regulation of both boxing and MMA.

(Note: After we recorded this show, it was reported that MMA and Jiu-Jitsu legend Royce Gracie, who fought on the June 2 K-1 Dynamite card in Los Angeles, had also had tested positive for steroid use.)

Also required reading on these subjects is the article "What's so bad about steroids?" by Dr. Todd Chapman on SecondsOut.com.

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The NO HOLDS BARRED theme song is called "The Heist", by musician Ian Carpenter.

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Labels: AIDS, boxing, combat sports, Eddie Goldman, Extreme Fighting, grappling, HIV, Ian Carpenter, Margaret Goodman, mixed martial arts, MMA, No Holds Barred, Tommy Morrison, UFC, wrestling