NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman presents a no holds barred analysis of why the sport of wrestling, dropped from the Olympic program in February, received a reprieve at the International Olympic Committee's Executive Board meeting of May 29, and was included on a shortlist of three sports vying for inclusion on the program of the 2020 Olympic Games.

Discussed are the blunders and some of the backroom machinations which led to wrestling at first being dropped from the Olympics, as well as the real power struggle which resulted in it finishing first in the voting for the sports on this shortlist.

Essential to understanding this power struggle is grasping analysis of investigative reporter Jens Weinreich in his article Who rules world sport? Part 1: Vladimir Putin, Marius Vizer and Sheikh Ahmad Al-Sabah. (That article is in German, so use a service like Google Translate if needed.)

The influence of Putin and his allies on events that transpired in both the IOC and FILA, the international wrestling federation, is highlighted. Also discussed are why FILA dropped grappling and amateur MMA, the urgent need for a battle against corruption in wrestling, the election of Marius Vizer as president of SportAccord and his proposal for a united World Championship event for the many Olympic and non-Olympic sports which are part of SportAccord, and much more.

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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.

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Labels: corruption, Eddie Goldman, FILA, grappling, International Olympic Committee, IOC, Jens Weinreich, Marius Vizer, MMA, No Holds Barred, Russia, shortlist, SportAccord, Vladimir Putin, wrestling