NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with Daniel "Lion Heart" Lerwell, one of the two self-described cage fighting drag queens from Swansea, Wales, who received international notoriety after beating back an attack by two thugs on August 30.

When Daniel Lerwell, his friend James Lilley, and a group of their friends went out socializing the night of August 30, the night before a national holiday in the UK, they decided to have some fun by dressing in drag, as women. However, Lerwell and Lilley was attacked by two men, described in the UK media as drunken "yobs", who apparently thought that these men dressed in drag were easy targets.

They soon found out otherwise, as they were quickly dropped by Lerwell and Lilley, and later arrested by the police.

Daniel "Lion Heart" Lerwell and James "Lights Out" Lilley, it turns out, are both mixed martial arts fighters who train at the Predator Gym, which is affiliated with the legendary Gracie Barra Academy. Lilley is also a professional boxer. So while these two yobs might have thought that they were in for an easy night of gay-bashing or drag queen-bashing, they ended up in jail, bruised and battered from the effective self-defense of their would-be victims.

The video of the attack was captured on closed circuit cameras, and has become a major hit on YouTube.

There is also a Facebook group about all this, called Done By Men In Drag.

We had a chance Friday morning to speak by phone with Daniel "Lion Heart" Lerwell about this attack, its lessons, and his fighting career. He has been besieged by mainstream media requests, but took the time out to speak with us on No Holds Barred.

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Labels: cage fighter, Daniel Lerwell, drag queen, Eddie Goldman, MMA, No Holds Barred