NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Mark Pavelich, the owner and president of the Maximum Fighting Championship (MFC).

The next card for MFC, the largest MMA company in Canada, is MFC 38: Behind Enemy Lines, which will take place this Friday, October 4, at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It will be televised live in the U.S. on AXS TV, with the undercard fights on MFC's Facebook page.

There are three title fights on this card. Anthony Hamilton takes on the unbeaten Smealinho Rama for the MFC heavyweight title, the unbeaten Jason South fights Sam Alvey for the MFC middleweight title, and Tito Jones squares off against Anthony Birchak for the MFC bantamweight title.

With all these title fights, MFC decided to leave it up to the fans to vote on which one would be the main event. They chose the bantamweight bout, between Jones and Birchak. This was largely due to Birchak's last fight, at MFC 37 in May of this year, when he defeated Ryan Benoit by unanimous decision in an exciting, back-and-forth, technique-filled fight of the year candidate.

We spoke with Mark Pavelich by phone and Google Voice Monday.

"I'm telling you now right now, we're going to have a fight of the year, 100 percent, this Friday night, October 4th, at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada," he said. "So people, tune in to AXS TV and you'll see what I'm talking about."

He added, "I'm going to shoot my mouth off, and then it's going to be backed up by these great fighters this Friday night."

We also discussed why he chose to go to fan voting to select this main event, which he said is done "nowhere else"; the importance of MFC running fights in a ring; how MFC is looking for an investor to buy "49 percent" of the company to take things to the next level; how he knows "how to do everything" in MMA; the new TV deal for MFC with the Fight Network in Canada; 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.

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/.

Labels: AXS, Canada, Eddie Goldman, Mark Pavelich, Maximum Fighting Championship, MFC, MMA, No Holds Barred