NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with Bas Boon, the vice-president of business development of Glory Sports International.

It was announced at a press conference Thursday in Tokyo that Glory Sports International will be responsible for presenting 'DREAM 18 - Special NYE 2012', a New Year's Eve MMA mega-event at the Saitama Super Arena on December 31. The card will include ten MMA fights and three kickboxing matches. So far, three Japanese fighters have been confirmed for this event: the Dream featherweight champion Hiroyuki Takaya, the 'Crusher' Tatsuya Kawajiri, and the lightweight contender Satoru Kitaoka. Many more fighters on this card, including international fighters, will be announced in the coming weeks.

We spoke with Bas Boon about this historic event by Skype on Friday (Thursday night in New York). Of course, the issue of the problems which have caused the previous management of Dream not to run any more shows, such as fighters not getting paid, were among the first things we discussed.

"We cleaned up the mess," said Bas Boon in this interview. "The Dream brand is revived. The New Year's Eve show basically is going to take place under Dream 18. It is clean. There is a new management. Of course, we are going to use a lot of the old producers because the production of Dream was out of this planet, and that's certainly a thing we want to maintain."

We also discussed several other major kickboxing cards which Glory is putting on, including the Glory 3 Rome 'Final 8' (70 kilogram/154 pound) one-night tournament at the famed PalaLottomatica arena in Rome on November 3, and the Glory 4 Tokyo 'Heavyweight Grand Slam' 16-man one-night tournament at the Makuhari Messe, Chiba, Greater Tokyo, on December 2.

The revival of the popular New Year's Eve show in Japan featuring both MMA and kickboxing is already getting major attention around the world, as is the continuing expansion of Glory Sports International. "It's pretty intense," commented Bas Boon on all this activity, a fact which no doubt will please many fans of the combat sports.

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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 Big Apple BJJ Open, 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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