NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with our colleague and correspondent Chris Thomas about the state of mixed martial arts.

On the top of the list of issues we discussed was the recent buyout by Zuffa, the parent company of UFC, of their main competitor, Strikeforce. We examined the issue of whether or not this might violate antitrust legislation in the U.S. We discussed the possible precedent set by the 1955 U.S. Supreme Court case, United States v. International Boxing Club of New York (IBC), in which the court said that the U.S. government could take the IBC to trial for having an effective monopoly on boxing, despite the antitrust exemption that the U.S. Congress had granted to baseball. The U.S. government prevailed, and later won its case against the IBC.

We also examined other issues relating to the state of MMA, including who benefits and who does not with this buyout, what other or aspiring major promoters might do to succeed under the present conditions, and more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here. You can also download No Holds Barred here. If one link does not work, please try another. The show is in MP3 format, so may take some time to download.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", by Ian Carpenter.

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

Beezid.com - Penny Auctions. Your #1 source for exciting auction shopping and outstanding deals on just about anything! Top rated, most trusted auction site online. Where do you shop? Beezid.com - Penny Auctions.

American Top Team. Whether you're a beginner or a champion, train with the champions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, wrestling, grappling, and mixed martial arts at American Top Team. Check out their web site at http://americantopteam.com/.

The American Sambo Association, which is committed to becoming the premier association in the U.S. dedicated to the advancement of Sambo. Sambo is a form of sport, self-defense, and combat established in the former Soviet Union during the early twentieth century. For more information, go to ussambo.com.