NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with Anne Pellaud, the head of sport and communication department of the international wrestling federation, FILA.

FILA (the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles, or Fédération Internationale des Luttes Associées) may be best known for governing Olympic wrestling, but they also govern many non-Olympic styles, including grappling, Pankration, and amateur mixed martial arts. Anne Pellaud also manages the competition in these non-Olympic styles.

In what is a historic development, FILA will be hosting the first-ever FILA North American Invitational, an international amateur MMA tournament. This tournament will take place as part of the 2012 MMA World Expo in New York City, December 1-2. (Under New York law, professional MMA is banned but amateur MMA is legal and unregulated.)

We spoke with Anne Pellaud by Skype Wednesday about this important development.

"It is a historical event. I think it is for New York and it is also for FILA," she said in this interview. "I also believe that it will be the first step to many big returning events in New York."

We discussed how FILA wants to build amateur MMA as a real sport which is self-sustained, the need for national federations to govern amateur MMA in their countries, the use of the tournament format which avoids matchmaking and guarantees that the best will win, the need for a code of conduct and adhering as closely as possible to Olympic standards, fighter safety and anti-doping in amateur MMA, the rules and scoring, the importance of SportAccord and the World Combat Games, how grappling and MMA might one day in the future become Olympic sports, and much, much more.

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ONE Fighting Championship. ONE FC is Asia's largest and most prestigious mixed martial arts event. ONE FC features the best Asian fighters and has initiated the ONE Asia Partnership Network, which includes most of the major MMA promotions and MMA gyms in Asia. For more information, go to their web site, at ONEFC.com.

MMA World Expo. The mixed martial arts community comes to New York City December 1 and 2 for the fourth annual MMA World Expo, featuring an amateur MMA tournament, the Renzo Gracie BJJ Open 2012 tournament, the Big Apple No-Gi tournament, MMA fighters, seminars with world-class trainers, vendors, panel discussions, and much more. The 2012 MMA World Expo takes place Saturday, December 1, and Sunday, December 2, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

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