NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with MMA fighter Antonio McKee.

The 42-year-old McKee, whose only loss since 2003 was a highly controversial split decision in 2011 on a UFC show in Las Vegas, Nevada, will be returning to action New Year's Eve. He will face the submission master Shinya Aoki in a mixed martial arts fight on the Dream portion of the "GSI presents DREAM 18 and GLORY 4 Tokyo - New Year's Eve Special" event at Japan's Saitama Super Arena on Monday, December 31. Since McKee has a strong wrestling base, this fight with Aoki could see a lot of technical and entertaining grappling between two fighters with different styles.

"I think it's a great matchup," said Antonio McKee in this interview, which was recorded by phone Monday, December 17. "I think it's a dangerous matchup for Aoki, considering he's not a real threat on the feet, and we both kind of specialize on the ground. I'm more of the defense and he's more of an offense. So I think it's going to come down to conditioning and who has the heart to win. I really don't plan on it going to a decision."

We also discussed his support for the formation of a union for MMA fighters, the health problems which caused him to miss weight in his final fight in MFC, the need for fighters to be treated professionally, how long he plans to continue fighting, and much more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link doesn't work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is also available on mobile phones and iPads through Stitcher.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.

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

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 February 16 and 17, 2013, for the fourth annual MMA World Expo, featuring an amateur MMA tournament, grappling, MMA fighters, seminars with world-class trainers, vendors, panel discussions, and much more. The MMA World Expo takes place Saturday, February 16, and Sunday, February 17, 2013, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

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/.

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with wrestler Kyle Dake.

Currently in his final year wrestling for Cornell, Kyle Dake has the distinction of being the only college wrestler in America to have won three NCAA Division I individual national championships in three different weight classes: 141, 149, and 157 pounds. This season he is competing at 165 pounds, and is currently ranked number one in the country.

At the Grapple at the Garden event on Sunday, December 16, at New York's Madison Square Garden, Kyle Dake won both his matches and was awarded the Bill Farrell Outstanding Wrestler Award. He also has wrestled in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, having been a U.S. junior world team member in Greco while still in high school, and plans to focus on freestyle when his college wrestling career concludes this coming March. He thus is a prime candidate to achieve success in international wrestling in the years to come, and an athlete to whom the international wrestling community should pay close attention.

Right after the Grapple at the Garden event concluded, we had a chance to speak with Kyle Dake.

"I wrestled pretty tough, but there's definitely parts of my game that I can improve on, and that's what I'm looking forward to," he said in this interview. "These next two weeks are going to be really important, and we're going to come up on the Southern Scuffle and I'm going to be ready to go."

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link doesn't work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is also available on mobile phones and iPads through Stitcher.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.

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

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 February 16 and 17, 2013, for the fourth annual MMA World Expo, featuring an amateur MMA tournament, grappling, MMA fighters, seminars with world-class trainers, vendors, panel discussions, and much more. The MMA World Expo takes place Saturday, February 16, and Sunday, February 17, 2013, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

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/.

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman discusses the tragic mass killings which took place in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, and what they mean for the violent world of the combat sports. The question is: With rampant violence being committed around the world against innocent people, under what terms can we still justify supporting the combat sports and martial arts?

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link doesn't work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is also available on mobile phones and iPads through Stitcher.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.

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

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 February 16 and 17, 2013, for the fourth annual MMA World Expo, featuring an amateur MMA tournament, grappling, MMA fighters, seminars with world-class trainers, vendors, panel discussions, and much more. The MMA World Expo takes place Saturday, February 16, and Sunday, February 17, 2013, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

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/.

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with wrestler, grappler, and MMA fighter Lia Mata'afa.

At the recent 2012 FILA World Championships in Grappling, Pankration, and Amateur MMA, she won a world championship in women's amateur MMA at 71 kg and finished fifth in women's no-gi grappling, also at 71 kg, Representing American Samoa, she also finished second at the 2012 Oceania Championship in women's wrestling and fifth at an Olympic Qualification Tournament in March, both at 72 kg. Currently she is tied for second in the FILA world rankings in women's amateur MMA for athletes of all weights, only behind another world champion, Anna Bezhenar of Ukraine.

Lia first came to prominence in the combat sports while in high school, winning a girl's state high school wrestling championship in 1998 at 140 pounds, representing Lahainaluna High School. While she did not wrestle while attending college in Boston University, she has in recent years returned to the combat sports. Again based in Hawaii, she believes that she is ready to make her mark.

"Only in the past maybe three or four years I got back into it. When I was back in Hawaii I started training MMA with Chris Leben. He has a gym out here," she said in this interview, which was recorded by phone Monday. "It started off just to stay in shape and have fun, but I'm so competitive I wanted to start competing."

Her goals for 2013 include winning another FILA world championship in amateur MMA, and then going into professional MMA. She also will be competing at the MMA World Expo in New York, February 16-17.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link doesn't work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is also available on mobile phones and iPads through Stitcher.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.

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

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 February 16 and 17, 2013, for the fourth annual MMA World Expo, featuring an amateur MMA tournament, grappling, MMA fighters, seminars with world-class trainers, vendors, panel discussions, and much more. The MMA World Expo takes place Saturday, February 16, and Sunday, February 17, 2013, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

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/.

2003 World Wrestling Championships

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with the head wrestling coach at the University of Maryland, Kerry McCoy.

Now in his fifth season as head coach there, Kerry McCoy will be leading his Maryland team into an historic event featuring 14 of the top college wrestling teams in America competing on Sunday, December 16, in Madison Square Garden: the Grapple at the Garden.

Although Madison Square Garden, known as the World's Most Famous Arena, has existed in New York for 133 years and in four different locations, it has never hosted a college wrestling event. Now, in the same building which was the site of the first Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight, countless concerts and special events, and years of basketball and hockey as well as other sporting events, college wrestling will make its debut with a bang on December 16.

Competing at the Grapple at the Garden will be 14 NCAA Division I wrestling teams: Bloomsburg, Bucknell, Chattanooga, Cornell, Drexel, Hofstra, George Mason, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Ohio State, and Rutgers. The event will also feature the PSAL Holiday Tournament, featuring some of the top high school wrestlers from New York City. Eight mats will be set up for simultaneous wrestling, with each college team wrestling in two dual meets. The first set of matches is scheduled to start at 10:30 AM, with the second set of matches at 12:30 PM.

The talent on the mat will include many of the best college wrestlers and teams in the U.S. Eight of the teams are currently ranked in the Top 25 in the NWCA Coaches Poll, more than 65 nationally ranked wrestlers are expected to compete in this event, and four past NCAA champions are also scheduled to wrestle.

While the Grapple at the Garden marks the debut for college wrestling at Madison Square Garden, there have been two major freestyle wrestling events there in recent years. The 1998 Goodwill Games wrestling was held in the smaller arena at the Garden, while the 2003 World Freestyle Wrestling Championships was held in the main arena, drawing over 12,500 fans for the finals. And Kerry McCoy wrestled in both of those events, finishing second at heavyweight in the 1998 Goodwill Games and winning a world silver medal at the 2003 World Freestyle Wrestling Championships. A Pan American and World Cup champion, and a two-time NCAA Div. I champion at Penn State, he also wrestled in the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games.

We spoke with Kerry McCoy by phone Friday afternoon to preview the Grapple at the Garden and get his unique perspective on it.

Asked about competing in Madison Square Garden, he said in this interview, "It's unbelievable. You're in the world's most famous arena, where so many great athletes have been able to compete and participate, guys like Muhammad Ali, and Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in basketball, all these different great athletes that were able to compete in this arena, among other famous people, entertainers, sports figures. Anything that's ever been exciting, everything important has had a chance to be in the Garden." And he added, "It's just exciting to be able to have that experience. I was fortunate enough to compete there when I was competing, and experience it as an athlete. Now to go back as a coach is something that is exciting as well."

We also discussed the prospects for the Maryland wrestling team, currently ranked number 17 in the U.S., who their top wrestlers are, the future of college wrestling in the U.S., and much more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link doesn't work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is also available on mobile phones and iPads through Stitcher.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.

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

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 February 16 and 17, 2013, for the fourth annual MMA World Expo, featuring an amateur MMA tournament, grappling, MMA fighters, seminars with world-class trainers, vendors, panel discussions, and much more. The MMA World Expo takes place Saturday, February 16, and Sunday, February 17, 2013, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

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/.

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with Dr. Ann McKee of the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy.

A study was published Monday by Boston University School of Medicine researchers, including Dr. McKee, about the effects of head injuries on 85 deceased brain donors, most of whom had been professional athletes in contact sports.

We spoke with Dr. McKee about the findings of this study on Friday by Skype.

"This is a study of 85 individuals who all had a history of repetitive, what we call mild brain traumas, meaning by that concussion and sub-concussive injuries, so injury that didn't even rise to the level of a concussion," said Dr. McKee in this interview. "Most of the individuals studied were football players, but there were also hockey players, boxers, as well as military veterans, most of which had had some athletic exposure. In this study, we looked for the effects of this repetitive mild brain trauma."

The key finding of this study was, "We found in 80 percent that they had a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)."

CTE is a brain disease associated with dementia, impairment and loss of cognition, and related physical and mental problems.

A study with this size of a sample, of course, could not definitively establish the exact relationship between head trauma, concussions, and CTE, and there are also genetic factors involved which remain to be studied. But the evidence is moving in a direction which indicates that at least, repetitive head injuries greatly increase the risk of CTE.

While much more research still must be done, and CTE can at this time only be diagnosed through autopsies, the existing research poses a question, especially for parents of children who are participating or considering participating in contact sports like football, hockey, boxing, or MMA: Should parents let their children participate in these sports, and if so, what special safeguards are needed for children in them?

Again, while more research needs to be done, Dr. McKee acknowledged this problem today, advising parents, with caution, "Let's play sports that don't involve hitting your head."

We also discussed how this ongoing research may affect contact and combat sports in years to come, what we know and don't know about head trauma in combat sports with no striking like wrestling and grappling, how interested people can assist this research, and much more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link doesn't work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is also available on mobile phones and iPads through Stitcher.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.

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

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 February 16 and 17, 2013, for the fourth annual MMA World Expo, featuring an amateur MMA tournament, grappling, MMA fighters, seminars with world-class trainers, vendors, panel discussions, and much more. The MMA World Expo takes place Saturday, February 16, and Sunday, February 17, 2013, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

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/.

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again speaks with American Top Team MMA fighter and two-time ADCC and three-time FILA world grappling champion, Jeff Monson.

Jeff has just completed a whirlwind series of events, competing on three cards and in a total of five fights in MMA and grappling, in just 10 days, and winning them all. He followed up a second-round submission victory over Alexander Emelianenko on November 15 at the M-1 15th anniversary show in St. Petersburg, Russia, and another world championship on November 17 at the FILA no-gi grappling world championship in Skala, Poland, with a decision win on November 24 over Kang Dong-Gook on the ROAD FC 10 card in Busan, Korea. This meant that in 2012, Jeff Monson went undefeated in both MMA and grappling.

"The year went pretty good," he said in this interview, which was recorded by phone Wednesday night. "I got a little banged up in the last match, so that's probably going to be it for the rest of the year, till looking at M-1 coming up in February."

We discussed his incredible 12-hour layover in China after leaving Korea, during which he was treated by an ophthalmologist. We also discussed with Jeff, who turns 42 in January, his plans to drop to 205 pounds for MMA, his 2013 plans to fight in M-1 and Road FC and possibly elsewhere, his desire to compete in grappling at both the ADCC and FILA world championships next year, what grappling might do in order to become a popular spectator sport, fighting at his age, and more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link doesn't work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is also available on mobile phones and iPads through Stitcher.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.

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

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 February 16 and 17, 2013, for the fourth annual MMA World Expo, featuring an amateur MMA tournament, grappling, MMA fighters, seminars with world-class trainers, vendors, panel discussions, and much more. The MMA World Expo takes place Saturday, February 16, and Sunday, February 17, 2013, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

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/.

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again speaks with lifelong martial artist, former UFC and Battlecade Extreme Fighting matchmaker, TV commentator, and our senior correspondent, John Perretti.

On October 11, 1997, before the major no-gi grappling championships of today, John Perretti was the main organizer of a pioneering grappling event known simply as "The Contenders". The format was a seven-match card, held in Sioux City, Iowa, pitting a team of various martial artists against a team of elite U.S. wrestlers. Victory in each match could come by submission or, if there was none, judges' decision. There was no striking permitted, and the matches were held in a cage. The martial artists won, four matches to three, including three wins by submissions, but controversy ensued during and after the event about the rules and decisions.

This ended up being a money-losing, one-shot deal, because attendance was sparse and pay-per-view buys were minuscule. Still, it is considered a pioneering event because its concept helped inspire the numerous no-gi grappling championships which followed it.

Calling the event his "brainchild," John Perretti said in this interview, which was recorded by Skype Sunday, "I am to blame for all the problems with it." But he added, quoting a widely-held view about this event, "It's the greatest show no one ever saw."

We thus discussed what happened at this historic event, many of whose matches can be seen on YouTube, some of the lessons for today, and much more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link doesn't work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is also available on mobile phones and iPads through Stitcher.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.

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

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 February 16 and 17, 2013, for the fourth annual MMA World Expo, featuring an amateur MMA tournament, grappling, MMA fighters, seminars with world-class trainers, vendors, panel discussions, and much more. The MMA World Expo takes place Saturday, February 16, and Sunday, February 17, 2013, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

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/.