NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with WBA middleweight champion Danny Jacobs and his next opponent, Sergio Mora, who fight in a rematch Friday, September 9. This headlines a Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) card at the Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania, and will be shown live in the U.S. on Spike TV. We spoke with them in a media conference all this week.

We also have an interview conducted by our colleague and correspondent Chris Baldwin with Joey Davis, who successfully made his MMA debut Friday, August 26, with a unanimous decision victory in a preliminary fight at Bellator 160, at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Davis was a four-time, undefeated, NCAA Div. II wrestling champion at Notre Dame College.

In addition, we have commentaries on the televised fights at the entertaining Bellator 160 card, which was shown live in the U.S. on Spike TV, and the problems facing elite wrestlers who decide to skip competing in the corrupt Olympic and international events and instead fight in MMA.

Also discussed is the PBC on Spike card held the following night, August 27, in the same building, the Honda Center. Upsets once again abounded on that PBC card, as little-known David Peralta won a split decision over veteran Robert Guerrero in the main event, and Freddy Hernandez won a unanimous decision over Alfredo Angulo.

(Photo of Guerrero vs. Peralta by Andy Samuelson, Premier Boxing Champions.)

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link does not work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is available at Google Play Music.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

You can also listen to No Holds Barred via Stitcher through iOS or Android devices or on the web here.

The PodOmatic Podcast Player app is available for free, both for Android at Google Play, and for iOS on the App Store.

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:

The Boxing Tribune, boxing's independent media. Unlike every other major boxing website, The Boxing Tribune is not funded or owned by promoters, managers, or networks, and is fully independent and free to write the truth. For independent boxing news and views, go to http://boxingtribune-news.com.

The North American Catch Wrestling Association, a grassroots organization designed to help rebuild the sport of catch-as-catch-can-wrestling. For more information, go to their Facebook page at facebook.com/NorthAmericanCatchWrestlingAssociation.

The National Registry for Wrestling, whose mission is to increase wrestling's fanbase, to build a registry of all wrestling fans, to serve as a connecting point for all wrestling fans, and to provide TV and Internet listings for wrestling. For more information, go to NR4W.com.

Labels: Bellator, boxing, Danny Jacobs, Eddie Goldman, Joey Davis, MMA, No Holds Barred, PBC, Sergio Mora

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with Dan Kanagie of the North American Catch Wrestling Association.

Continuing their tradition of annual events, their next one will be the 2016 Liberty Bell Challenge and Pennsylvania/New Jersey State King of Catch Tournament.

It will take place Saturday, August 27, at New World Mixed Martial Arts/NFF Boxing at 8801 Torresdale Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19136.

We spoke with Dan Kanagie by phone Monday.

"This will be our fourth year holding this event here in the Philadelphia area, actually our first year in the city of Philadelphia. So we have a new location," he said.

While the location is new, the basics of this event are the same as before.

There will be catch wrestling in six men's weight classes, a men's open weight division, and a women's division using the Madison System of pairing up the competitors. The open weight division winner will qualify for the national King of Catch championship.

Matches can only be won by pin or submission, with all submissions allowed, except moves considered unsportsmanlike such as eye-gouging, attacking the groin, etc. No striking is permitted. The matches have a win-lose-draw format, with each match consisting of the best of three falls with each fall having a 12-minute time limit. There can be an overtime if there is no winner after three complete periods, but after that the match will be declared a draw, with no one advancing in the tournaments in the case of a draw.

This event will be followed by an East Coast championship in November and the national championship in December, with details yet to be finalized. The national championship will likely feature two past King of Catch champions, Luis Ojeda and Thomas Velasquez.

We also discussed the importance of conditioning, how grapplers and wrestlers of all styles and rulesets are welcome at these events, how this revived catch wrestling is still in its infancy, the need to provide care for the athletes, how catch wrestling must use the latest technology and means of communication, why "there's a reason wrestling has lasted longer than anything," and much more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link does not work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is available at Google Play Music.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

You can also listen to No Holds Barred via Stitcher through iOS or Android devices or on the web here.

The PodOmatic Podcast Player app is available for free, both for Android at Google Play, and for iOS on the App Store.

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:

The Boxing Tribune, boxing's independent media. Unlike every other major boxing website, The Boxing Tribune is not funded or owned by promoters, managers, or networks, and is fully independent and free to write the truth. For independent boxing news and views, go to http://boxingtribune-news.com.

The North American Catch Wrestling Association, a grassroots organization designed to help rebuild the sport of catch-as-catch-can-wrestling. For more information, go to their Facebook page at facebook.com/NorthAmericanCatchWrestlingAssociation.

The National Registry for Wrestling, whose mission is to increase wrestling's fanbase, to build a registry of all wrestling fans, to serve as a connecting point for all wrestling fans, and to provide TV and Internet listings for wrestling. For more information, go to NR4W.com.

Labels: catch wrestling, catch-as-catch-can, Dan Kanagie, Eddie Goldman, Liberty Bell Challenge, No Holds Barred

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA legend Renzo Gracie, and human right activist Malaak Shabazz, who is the youngest daughter of Malcolm X.

We spoke with them Wednesday at the Renzo Gracie Academy in New York. We spoke with them before the announcement Saturday that Renzo Gracie would face Matt Hughes in a superfight at the upcoming ADCC World Championship on September 22-24, 2017, in the Espoo Metro Areena, Helsinki, Finland.

We began discussing with Renzo MMA in Asia, including his classic Pride fight with Sakuraba in 2000, as well as the more recent growth of Rizin and ONE Championship. He noted that these are all "amazing Asian events." We also talked about Tuesday's MMA Symposium at Columbia University.

A few minutes into the discussion, Malaak joined us. She discussed her recent trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil, and what she saw in the favelas.

She also has known Renzo for a long time, and vowed to return to training.

"Even though I had a leg injury, I am still a grappler," she said.

We discussed her father's support for training in martial arts, and how she and her five sisters had to have training in martial arts and piano.

Malcolm X's advocacy of martial arts training saw it as a component part of the freedom struggle for human rights.

As Renzo pointed out, "You can't demand freedom without knowing how to fight. And he knew that. He was a fighter before anything else."

We also discussed how what Malcolm X advocated was training in both striking and grappling, in other words, in what is today called mixed martial arts.

We also discussed how urban kids, both boys and girls, want and need more martial arts programs; the need for people in the combat sports to study sports management programs in college; plans for hosting more events; and much, much more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link does not work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is available at Google Play Music.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

You can also listen to No Holds Barred via Stitcher through iOS or Android devices or on the web here.

The PodOmatic Podcast Player app is available for free, both for Android at Google Play, and for iOS on the App Store.

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:

The Boxing Tribune, boxing's independent media. Unlike every other major boxing website, The Boxing Tribune is not funded or owned by promoters, managers, or networks, and is fully independent and free to write the truth. For independent boxing news and views, go to http://boxingtribune-news.com.

The North American Catch Wrestling Association, a grassroots organization designed to help rebuild the sport of catch-as-catch-can-wrestling. For more information, go to their Facebook page at facebook.com/NorthAmericanCatchWrestlingAssociation.

The National Registry for Wrestling, whose mission is to increase wrestling's fanbase, to build a registry of all wrestling fans, to serve as a connecting point for all wrestling fans, and to provide TV and Internet listings for wrestling. For more information, go to NR4W.com.

Labels: BJJ, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Eddie Goldman, grappling, Malaak Shabazz, Malcolm X, MMA, No Holds Barred, Renzo Gracie

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with welterweights Errol Spence Jr. and Leonard Bundu who fight Sunday, August 21, in Brooklyn, and discussed the latest Olympic boxing robberies.

The 26-year-old Spence (20-0, 17 KOs) will face the 41-year-old Bundu (33-1-2, 12 KOs) in an IBF welterweight title eliminator at the new outdoor Ford Amphitheater at the Coney Island Boardwalk in Brooklyn, New York. This fight will be televised live in the U.S. on NBC, in the U.K. on BoxNation, and in Italy on Sportitalia TV. The NBC telecast is scheduled to start about 5 PM EDT, following the Olympic men's basketball gold medal game.

As for boxing at the Rio Olympics, on Monday, the heavyweight gold medal fight between Evgeny Tishchenko of Russia and Vassily Levit of Kazakhstan ended not surprisingly in yet another disgraceful robbery. Tishchenko was awarded a unanimous decision, despite being outfought for all three rounds, and being visibly hurt and cut in the final round. The judges' decision was loudly booed by the fans. Many are calling this the worst robbery in Olympic boxing since the infamous "loss" by Roy Jones Jr. at the 1988 Seoul Olympics in a verdict that was bought and paid for.

But just one day later, there was competition for that dishonor as the worst Olympic boxing robbery, in the bantamweight quarterfinal fight between Michael Conlan of Ireland and Vladimir Nikitin of -- where else? -- Russia. In this fight, Conlan clearly won at least two of the three rounds, with more and cleaner punches. But the judges scored it a unanimous decision for Nikitin, with two of them giving all three rounds to the Russian fighter.

There were warnings that this type of corruption would occur at the Rio 2016 boxing, such as in an article in the Guardian of the U.K., written before the start of the Olympics, called Rio 2016: Olympic boxing tournament hit by corruption allegations. The article explained, based on reports from whistleblowers, how some Olympic boxing officials were actually "meeting before major championships to decide on certain bouts."

Once again, this shows that the International Olympic Committee and Russia are the world champions of sport corruption.

For Errol Spence, who is considered a rising star and a soon-to-be world champion, this fight with Bundu is another in a series of fights with journeymen where his performance will be compared to those of others who have defeated these same opponents. Spence has won his last seven fights by TKOs, including defeating veterans Chris Algieri and Alejandro Barrera by stoppage for the first time in their careers. How he will look and do against Bundu, who has also never been stopped, is more of a question than who will win this fight.

We spoke with both Errol Spence Jr. and Leonard Bundu on a recent media conference call to get their views coming into this fight.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link does not work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is available at Google Play Music.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

You can also listen to No Holds Barred via Stitcher through iOS or Android devices or on the web here.

The PodOmatic Podcast Player app is available for free, both for Android at Google Play, and for iOS on the App Store.

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:

The Boxing Tribune, boxing's independent media. Unlike every other major boxing website, The Boxing Tribune is not funded or owned by promoters, managers, or networks, and is fully independent and free to write the truth. For independent boxing news and views, go to http://boxingtribune-news.com.

The North American Catch Wrestling Association, a grassroots organization designed to help rebuild the sport of catch-as-catch-can-wrestling. For more information, go to their Facebook page at facebook.com/NorthAmericanCatchWrestlingAssociation.

The National Registry for Wrestling, whose mission is to increase wrestling's fanbase, to build a registry of all wrestling fans, to serve as a connecting point for all wrestling fans, and to provide TV and Internet listings for wrestling. For more information, go to NR4W.com.

Labels: boxing, Eddie Goldman, Errol Spence, Leonard Bundu, No Holds Barred, Olympic, robbery

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with sports and entertainment lawyer Carla Varriale.

She is a member of the faculty at Columbia University's School of Professional Studies Sports Management Program.

They will be holding a symposium, which is the first educational forum dedicated to MMA in New York, called Fight Card.

This event is free and open to the public, and will take place Tuesday, August 16, starting at 6 PM EDT at Columbia University's Schermerhorn Hall in Manhattan.

The symposium will be moderated by MMA journalist Jim Genia, with panelists including Renzo Gracie, Mario Mercado, Jr., Justin Klein, David Berlin, David Weinraub, and Rene Dreifuss. There will also be a question-and-answer session.

You can register here.

We spoke with Carla Varriale by phone Thursday.

The symposium, she said, "came about when the students from the sports management program wanted to study why, after all this time now that mixed martial arts has become legal in New York, what the next steps forward for the sport were, and what the challenges and opportunities for it were."

We also discussed the effect on MMA of the turmoil in the New York State Athletic Commission, extending the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act to include MMA fighters, how she got involved in examining and teaching about all these issues, and much more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link does not work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is available at Google Play Music.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

You can also listen to No Holds Barred via Stitcher through iOS or Android devices or on the web here.

The PodOmatic Podcast Player app is available for free, both for Android at Google Play, and for iOS on the App Store.

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:

The Boxing Tribune, boxing's independent media. Unlike every other major boxing website, The Boxing Tribune is not funded or owned by promoters, managers, or networks, and is fully independent and free to write the truth. For independent boxing news and views, go to http://boxingtribune-news.com.

The North American Catch Wrestling Association, a grassroots organization designed to help rebuild the sport of catch-as-catch-can-wrestling. For more information, go to their Facebook page at facebook.com/NorthAmericanCatchWrestlingAssociation.

The National Registry for Wrestling, whose mission is to increase wrestling's fanbase, to build a registry of all wrestling fans, to serve as a connecting point for all wrestling fans, and to provide TV and Internet listings for wrestling. For more information, go to NR4W.com.

Labels: Carla Varriale, Columbia, Eddie Goldman, MMA, New York, No Holds Barred, Sports Management Program, Symposium. Fight Card

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Jerry Millen, senior vice president of the Rizin Fighting Federation.

Rizin's next show will take place Sunday, September 25, featuring the opening round of their 2016 open weight MMA tournament. The second round will take place Thursday, December 29, with the finals at the traditional Japanese MMA New Year's Eve show, on Saturday, December 31. All these shows are scheduled to take place at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, with international television and streaming availability to be announced soon.

We spoke with Jerry Millen by phone Thursday.

Discussing this open weigh tournament, all of whose participants have not yet been announced, he explained that it will feature a mix of veteran fighters and potential rising stars.

"Cro Cop's fighting, obviously. We haven't announced his opponent yet," he said.

"Also, there's a bunch of young, up-and-coming fighters that we've signed at Rizin, and also from various promotions, who will be fighting. Jiří Procházka, guys like that, really strong, young MMA talent coming up, who'll be fighting on the 25th to earn a spot to move up to December 29th, which will actually begin the eight-man portion of the tournament, where Wanderlei Silva take place." After being the victim of a hit-and-run car accident recently, Wanderlei had surgery and is now rehabbing, he added.

"Cro Cop hopefully will move on," he said, setting up a potential New Year's Eve tournament final of Cro Cop vs. Wanderlei.

A key reason for using veterans such as Wanderlei and Cro Cop is to bring back the old fans of Pride, he said. Much of MMA, and especially UFC, are becoming "homogenized," he argued. "It needs to be fun again." At the same time, as Rizin strives to become "Pride 2.0", it will develop young fighters who may one day become the new Cro Cops, Sakurabas, etc.

In addition, we discussed the upcoming MMA debut of three-time world wrestling champion Miyuu Yamamoto. She is scheduled to make that debut on the September 25th Rizin event against an opponent to be announced. Also on this card will be her son, Erson Yamamoto, making it the first time in MMA history where a mother and son will be fighting on the same card.

We also discussed the prospects for seeing Fedor Emelianenko in Rizin again, how Rizin operates as a federation and cooperates with numerous MMA promotions all over the world, how long Dana White might last with the UFC under their new ownership and management, and much more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link does not work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is available at Google Play Music.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

You can also listen to No Holds Barred via Stitcher through iOS or Android devices or on the web here.

The PodOmatic Podcast Player app is available for free, both for Android at Google Play, and for iOS on the App Store.

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:

The Boxing Tribune, boxing's independent media. Unlike every other major boxing website, The Boxing Tribune is not funded or owned by promoters, managers, or networks, and is fully independent and free to write the truth. For independent boxing news and views, go to http://boxingtribune-news.com.

The North American Catch Wrestling Association, a grassroots organization designed to help rebuild the sport of catch-as-catch-can-wrestling. For more information, go to their Facebook page at facebook.com/NorthAmericanCatchWrestlingAssociation.

The National Registry for Wrestling, whose mission is to increase wrestling's fanbase, to build a registry of all wrestling fans, to serve as a connecting point for all wrestling fans, and to provide TV and Internet listings for wrestling. For more information, go to NR4W.com.

Labels: Cro Cop, Eddie Goldman, Japan, Jerry Millen, Jiří Procházka, Miyuu Yamamoto, MMA, No Holds Barred, Rizin Fighting Federation, Wanderlei Silva