NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Ralek Gracie, founder of the Metamoris Pro Jiu Jitsu Invitational.

Their second event, Metamoris II, will take place Sunday. June 9, at the Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California.

The rules of this jiu-jitsu event are easy to understand. There are no points. Each match has a 20-minute time limit. The only ways to win are by submission, or if there is no submission, judges' decision based on evaluating the entire match.

Metamoris I, held in October 2012 in San Diego, California, had numerous exciting matches involving some of the best grapplers in the world. This second edition features another stellar fight card.

Headlining this card will be a no-gi match between Japanese grappling and MMA sensation Shinya Aoki, who is the reigning ONE FC lightweight champion, and rising star Kron Gracie, who is coached by his legendary father, Rickson Gracie.

Numerous BJJ and ADCC champions will also face each other on this card, including: Braulio Estima vs. Rodolfo Vieira, Roberto "Cyborg" Abreu vs. Brendan Schaub, Mackenzie Dern vs. Michelle Nicolini, Andre Galvao vs. Rafael Lovato Jr., and Bill "The Grill" Cooper vs. Victor Estima.

Metamoris Pro Jiu Jitsu Invitational II will be broadcast live on an online pay-per-view at http://metamoris.com.

We spoke with Ralek Gracie by phone Tuesday about this important event.

In this interview, he said that Metamoris cannot be compared to events such the Mundials, also known as the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship, or other events where there are thousands of competitors, and at all levels. Metamoris, he said, has "just the top, top cream of the crop competitors." In addition, there is a strong cultural aspect to Metamoris.

The format for this event includes a card of single matches which puts "them against each other in an extremely entertaining environment that brings together the culture of Brazil through the music and the soundtrack of the event, and it brings together the art and the very contemporary artistic flair, and it brings together the pure art of jiu-jitsu."

He explained, "We hold exhibitions of jiu-jitsu, and we display the beauty and the art. And it's essentially non-violent." He continued, "We pretty much just create what we think people are going to want to see, and what we think is true to the art of jiu-jitsu, to the highest level that we can and what we know, and that's it."

Besides this event itself, we also discussed the changes in the rules since their first event, the potential for grappling events to grow as spectator sports, when they will announce their next show, and much more.

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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.

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Labels: BJJ, Eddie Goldman, grappling, Jiu Jitsu, Kron, Metamoris Pro, No Holds Barred, Ralek Gracie, Shinya Aoki, submissions