Monday, November 30, 2020
No Holds Barred: Leslie Collins and Laurie Collins of Sumo Kaboom
We spoke with them by Skype Sunday.
The Sumo Kaboom podcast offers a unique and entertaining take on the ancient and still thriving sport of sumo. Mixing discussion about the latest bashos (tournaments) in Japan with sumo history, new developments in amateur sumo in the U.S. and elsewhere, and, of course, comedy, this weekly podcast is both an introduction to the sport and an education in it. And it keeps your interest from start to finish, regardless of how much you know or don't know about sumo.
Laurie Collins, joined by her sister Leslie who both often talk over each other and laugh as they each speak, explained about the reasons they started a podcast on sumo.
"Initially it was just an interest. And we started this podcast earlier this year," in March, said Laurie Collins. "I sort of pitched it out there to Leslie because I was like, 'I need a creative project.'"
Their choice of a topic for the podcast was obvious: "Sumo is just incredibly fascinating to me."
At this point, Leslie Collins chimed in.
"I would never have gotten it done. She's more of the person who has an idea and follows through. And she actually gets things done. I was like, 'Sure I'll do it.' But then things fall apart. It was mostly her," Leslie Collins said, as they both laughed.
Laurie Collins described more on their decision to do a sumo podcast.
"Let's do this. Let's do it weekly. It might be absolutely ridiculous. But you know what? The more I look into the sumo coverage out there in America, there's not as much as I would like. I have a lot more questions about sumo that are not being answered. So, let's answer them," she said.
"And I think I only found one other female voice in the sumo media, which was Sumo Mainichi [from Australia]."
Thus, ergo, and therefore, they reasoned, "Why not? Let's try this thing. And if it fails, if it doesn't go anywhere, that's fine. But at least we're going to have fun trying, and we're going to learn something in the process."
We discussed more on their fascination with sumo and the wrestlers, discussing the sport while in the U.S. and during the coronavirus pandemic, how their travel and jobs as performers and comedians helped prepare them to embrace and cover sumo, the Japan Sumo Association and the International Sumo Federation, the need to expand the role of women in sumo at all levels, their emphasis on the culture and history of sumo and not simply analyzing the matches, how they are not experts on sumo but fans, thoughts on how to grow sumo in the U.S., and much, much more.
If you are able to, please make a donation to support No Holds Barred so that the truth can still be told. You can do so at PayPal.me/nhbnews.
You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link does not work, please try another.
No Holds Barred is also available on these sites and apps:
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 sponsored by:
LenneHardt.com, the home of Lenne Hardt, the legendary MMA and sports announcer, voice actor, singer, actress, and comedienne. Lenne is also known for her jazz vocals with her Lenne Hardt Jazz Cabaret Band. For more information, to book her, or to order a custom message from her, go to LenneHardt.com.
Skullz Combat Sports Equipment, creator of the patented Skullz Double-End Bag, is the perfect punching bag for your combat sports training. Skullz Double-End Bags provide a realistic striking target, and help improve speed, distance, and timing skills. Hang it and hit it right out of the box! No pump required. Skullz Combat Sports Equipment - Advancing combat sports equipment for the next generation of fighters. For more information, go to https://instagram.com/skullzcombatsports and https://facebook.com/skullzcombatsports.
Adolphina Studios. Original art prints and handcrafted fine jewelry. For more information, go to https://www.etsy.com/shop/AdolphinaStudios.
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
The 2020 3rd African Martial Arts Web Seminar is coming November 24-25
The International Centre of Martial Arts (ICM), based in Chungju in the Republic of Korea, was established on December 19, 2016, under an agreement between the Korean government and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), one of the most prestigious organizations in the world. ICM is striving to become a central hub for world martial arts, and thus has been holding events, seminars, and training camps in many parts of the world.
ICM has also contributed to the revival of interest in African martial arts. In 2018, they held the 1st African Regional Martial Arts Congress in Nairobi, Kenya, mainly aimed at the East African countries. The 2nd African Regional Martial Arts Congress was held in 2019, in Accra, Ghana, mainly aimed at the West African countries. A 3rd African Regional Martial Arts Congress was planned for this year in Harare, Zimbabwe, mainly aimed at Southern African countries, but like so much else those plans had to be revised because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In place of a live international congress, there will now be a live online webinar.
It is called the 2020 3rd African Martial Arts Web Seminar and its theme is "Martial Arts for African Youth and Women".
The 2020 3rd African Martial Arts Web Seminar is a two-day event and takes place November 24-25, for three hours each day starting at 4 PM Korea Standard Time, which is GMT/UTC +9. The starting time is optimized both for Africa, where it will begin at either 8, 9, or 10 AM depending on the time zone, and Korea. Thus, for those in the U.S., it will mean the live event takes place in the wee hours, since Korea is 14 hours ahead of U.S. EST and 17 hours ahead of U.S. PST.
The seminar will be live on ICM's YouTube page and Facebook Live. If you cannot make the live event, the recorded video is expected to be left up on those pages.
ICM has announced the scheduled speakers for all four sessions over the two days of the event. They include about 20 experts on various aspects of the martial arts, mainly from Africa but also some from Korea.
The latest information and updates on the program for the 2020 3rd African Martial Arts Web Seminar is here.
Since this is a webinar, anyone can register for it here.
ICM's YouTube channel is here.
Their Facebook page is here.
Their Instagram is at here.
Hopefully many people from the martial arts and combat sports communities around the world can view this important webinar, either live or on the recorded video.
Monday, November 09, 2020
No Holds Barred: Martin Stark on World Gay Boxing Championships
On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Martin Stark, the founder and CEO of the World Gay Boxing Championships.
The plan is for the inaugural World Gay Boxing Championships to take place in Sydney, Australia, in February 2023, coinciding with Mardi Gras and World Pride in that city. The World Gay Boxing Championships are open to all LGBTQ people but are also straight-friendly, and thus open to anyone.
We spoke with him by Skype Monday (Sunday in the U.S.).
The origins of the World Gay Boxing Championships are directly related to Martin Stark's own story.
"It literally started last year when I was in the hospital. I have the rare autoimmune condition Addison's disease, which basically means my adrenal glands do not produce cortisol, which is the same condition that President JFK had," he said.
"Now, last year I had hospitalization because of my disease. And to motivate myself, I contacted the Gay Games in Hong Kong to inquire about the boxing program. And they came back saying unfortunately boxing didn't make the list of sports for the next Gay Games" in 2022.
"So I came up with the idea with, well, I've been boxing for a period of time now and I wanted to compete. But I wanted to compete in an LGBTQ sporting environment. So I decided to create the first world, the world's first-ever LGBTQ boxing tournament, and called it the World Gay Boxing Championships."
Next he had to see if there was significant interest in this idea.
"It was just an idea. I started sharing my idea on LinkedIn, and friends started supporting me," he said.
"So that's how it all started."
Since then, the World Gay Boxing Championships was set up as an Australian not-for-profit organization.
In October of this year, Boxing Australia, the national federation for amateur boxing in Australia, announced that they are supporting the World Gay Boxing Championships and will assist with the organization of their events. The amateur boxing rules of AIBA, the Olympic boxing federation, will be used in these fights.
But the goals of the World Gay Boxing Championships go much farther than just organizing another boxing competition.
Part of what they are doing, said Martin Stark, "is to disrupt homophobia, biphobia, interphobia, and transphobia, so that people feel safe to compete in the beautiful sport of boxing, an amazing sport of boxing.
"And I have said repeatedly that by the end of this decade," he added, "I set up the organization to no longer exist. There is less hatred in sports."
Of course, he realizes that this goal remains to be achieved.
"We're not there yet. And we've made some great progress this century, but there's more work to do."
We also discussed plans to increase funding for the World Gay Boxing Championships, plans to develop more grassroots boxing clubs and participation, plans for smaller fight nights leading up to the event itself, and much more.
If you are able to, please make a donation to support No Holds Barred so that the truth can still be told. You can do so at PayPal.me/nhbnews.
You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link does not work, please try another.
No Holds Barred is also available on these sites and apps:
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 sponsored by:
LenneHardt.com, the home of Lenne Hardt, the legendary MMA and sports announcer, voice actor, singer, actress, and comedienne. Lenne is also known for her jazz vocals with her Lenne Hardt Jazz Cabaret Band. For more information, to book her, or to order a custom message from her, go to LenneHardt.com.
Skullz Combat Sports Equipment, creator of the patented Skullz Double-End Bag, is the perfect punching bag for your combat sports training. Skullz Double-End Bags provide a realistic striking target, and help improve speed, distance, and timing skills. Hang it and hit it right out of the box! No pump required. Skullz Combat Sports Equipment - Advancing combat sports equipment for the next generation of fighters. For more information, go to https://instagram.com/skullzcombatsports and https://facebook.com/skullzcombatsports.
Adolphina Studios. Original art prints and handcrafted fine jewelry. For more information, go to https://www.etsy.com/shop/AdolphinaStudios.
Labels: Australia, Eddie Goldman, LGBTQ, Martin Stark, No Holds Barred, Sydney, WGBC, World Gay Boxing Championships
Monday, November 02, 2020
No Holds Barred: Charles Farrell on Boxing's Stars of the Lighter Weights
On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with our colleague, correspondent, and the award-winning boxing writer, Charles Farrell.
We spoke with him by phone Sunday.
While the coronavirus pandemic is still raging in many parts of the world, there nevertheless have been many notable fights involving top boxers in recent weeks.
Among those fights we discussed were: Juan Francisco Estrada vs. Carlos Cuadras 2 and Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez vs. Israel Gonzalez on October 23, and Naoya Inoue vs. Jason Moloney, Gervonta Davis vs. Leo Santa Cruz, and Oleksandr Usyk vs. Derek Chisora, which were all on October 31.
Estrada, he said, "may be the best technical fighter fighting today. He does everything beautifully." His opponent in their rematch, Cuadras, "is brilliantly talented." This exciting, even matchup, where the outcome was in doubt until the very end, made this "the best fight I've seen in the last couple of years," he said.
The impressive knockouts on the same night by Naoya Inoue and Gervonta Davis have invited comparisons between the performances of these two boxers.
"I thought Inoue was the fighter of the night," said Charles Farrell. "I'm impressed with Davis's performance, but I was impressed with Santa Cruz's performance, too."
He added, "We already know that Davis can punch." But he cautioned, "I would say that, anybody that size who is hit with a punch like that, it would have the same effect. He'd knock them out cold. But I do think that some questions opened up that maybe we didn't have before."
After discussing more on all these fights and the current state of boxing, we moved on to Charles Farrell's memoir, which is due out in June 2021. It is entitled (Low)life: A Memoir of Jazz, Fight-Fixing, and The Mob. That led us into examining the connections between boxing, jazz, and the mob, and how boxing can only be understood as part of culture and not just a sport.
All this discussion of these fight of the year and knockout of the year candidates, as well as what might happen in 2021 in boxing especially with the heavyweights, makes this lengthy show the boxing podcast of the year.
If you are able to, please make a donation to support No Holds Barred so that the truth can still be told. You can do so at PayPal.me/nhbnews.
You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link does not work, please try another.
No Holds Barred is also available on these sites and apps:
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 sponsored by:
LenneHardt.com, the home of Lenne Hardt, the legendary MMA and sports announcer, voice actor, singer, actress, and comedienne. Lenne is also known for her jazz vocals with her Lenne Hardt Jazz Cabaret Band. For more information, to book her, or to order a custom message from her, go to LenneHardt.com.
Skullz Combat Sports Equipment, creator of the patented Skullz Double-End Bag, is the perfect punching bag for your combat sports training. Skullz Double-End Bags provide a realistic striking target, and help improve speed, distance, and timing skills. Hang it and hit it right out of the box! No pump required. Skullz Combat Sports Equipment - Advancing combat sports equipment for the next generation of fighters. For more information, go to https://instagram.com/skullzcombatsports and https://facebook.com/skullzcombatsports.
Adolphina Studios. Original art prints and handcrafted fine jewelry. For more information, go to https://www.etsy.com/shop/AdolphinaStudios.
