NO HOLDS BARRED

Eddie Goldman has long been covering the world of wrestling and combat sports and joins Wrestling 411 Radio today. The New York-based writer and broadcaster has covered boxing, Mixed Martial Arts, wrestling and a variety of contact and combat sports over his long career. You too can hear it all on Wrestling 411 simply click http://www.Wrestling411.tv .

Jason Bryant and Goldman have exchanged long discussions on wrestling’s role in the media, the role MMA plays in wrestling and something as far-fetched when it comes to things like wrestling’s relation to roller derby. Yes, roller derby.

Listen in to Bryant and Goldman spar on a number of topics, including Brock Lesnar, MMA, what associations to watch if you’re a wrestling fan tuning into MMA, and more roller derby all on Wrestling 411 – http://www.Wrestling411.tv .

Questions for any of the guests are welcome. You may e-mail your questions to Kyle Klingman at kklingman@mediasportsproductions.com .

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Labels: Art of War Fighting Championship, Bellator, Dream, Eddie Goldman, Jason Bryant, media, mixed martial arts, MMA, roller derby, Sengoku, Strikeforce, UFC, wrestling, Wrestling 411

NO HOLDS BARRED on PodOmatic

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with two of the most important figures in the world of grappling, Ricardo Liborio and Gary Abbott.

Ricardo Liborio is a legend in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. A black belt under the late, great Carlson Gracie, in 1996 Ricardo was one of the first winners of the Mundial, the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world championships, where he also was voted the most technical fighter. Besides being a Brazilian national champion in both jiu-jitsu and judo, he placed second in 2000 at the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) Submission Wrestling World Championship and third in 1999. He co-founded the Brazilian Top Team, and then became the founder and head instructor of the American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, where he still is located. He was voted coach of the year by the North American Grappling Association (NAGA) in 2005, and is a member of the NAGA Grappling Hall of Fame. He is regarded as one of the top coaches of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, mixed martial arts, and grappling in the world. He will also be one of the many international guests at the May 23 Art of War Fighting Championship mixed martial arts card in Beijing, China.

After wrestling at Boston University, Gary Abbott has served for two decades at USA Wrestling, the national governing body for wrestling in the U.S. and a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee. He is the Director of Communications for USA Wrestling, and is one of the key people who is tirelessly working to popularize the sport of wrestling and striving to make sure it is more widely covered in the media.

Now these two noted people from these two different styles of grappling will be working together. Ricardo Liborio has been named the National Coach for USA Grappling, which is the grappling program of USA Wrestling. This is an important step forward in the cooperation between different styles of grappling, and represents an acknowledgement of the essential unity between all styles of grappling, as well as all styles of the combat sports.

It was thus a quite lively and informative discussion that we had for No Holds Barred. We spoke about the journey Ricardo had made from the worlds of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Vale Tudo in Brazil, to mixed martial arts, and now to USA Grappling. We discussed all these styles and rules. We stressed the connection of all these styles of grappling, and all the combat sports. We analyzed the prospects for grappling becoming an Olympic sport. And we discussed with Gary the 2009 U.S. World Team Trials, which take place May 30-31 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, to determine the U.S. world teams for men's and women's freestyle wrestling and for Greco-Roman wrestling.

In addition, the 2009 Grappling World Championships will take place in the U.S., at the Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center, Dec. 12-13. We discussed the importance of this international event being held in U.S.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here. You can also download No Holds Barred here. If one link does not work, please try another. The show is in MP3 format, so may take some time to download.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", by Ian Carpenter.

Make sure to visit the official boxing forum for No Holds Barred, the MySpace Boxing Forum.

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

Gladiator Magazine, for in-depth coverage of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, submission grappling, and MMA, as well as lifestyle articles on surfing, cars, movies, and more. Gladiator Magazine is available at any major bookstore and online at BJJMart.com or Jiu Jitsu Pro Gear.

BJJMart.com, your premier source for all Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gear, videos, books, and much more.

Wrestling 411, providing coverage of the sport of wrestling on TV, the Internet, and radio. Wrestling 411 is produced by Media Sports Productions, whose sole mission is the marketing and promotion of the sport of wrestling.

FightBeat.com, for news, results, interviews, and free exclusive videos from the worlds of boxing and mixed martial arts.

Fair Deal for Atlantic City Dealers, a campaign organized by an alliance of casino workers and unions in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to fight for justice in the gaming industry and achieve a fair deal for all casino workers.

Labels: American Top Team, Art of War Fighting Championship, BJJ, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Eddie Goldman, freestyle, Gary Abbott, grappling, Greco-Roman, No Holds Barred, Ricardo Liborio, USA Wrestling, wrestling

NO HOLDS BARRED on PodOmatic

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with "The Fight Professor", the veteran broadcaster, actor, and musician Stephen Quadros.

In a lengthy interview and analysis, we discussed the upcoming May 23 Art of War Fighting Championship mixed martial arts card in Beijing, China, and the prospects of the Art of War Fighting Championship becoming as popular worldwide as were the Pride Fighting Championships. We discussed the fighters on this card, the rules, what they need to do to become a major world-class promotion, and more. We will both be attending this card in Beijing.

Plus, we also discussed the Strikeforce Challengers mixed martial arts card which will take place this Friday, May 15, at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif., and which will be telecast live in the U.S. on Showtime, with the announcing being done by Mauro Ranallo, Stephen Quadros, and Pat Miletich. This card will feature a lightweight fight between Billy Evangelista (9-0) and Mike Aina (11-6-1), and a bout between Meisha Tate (6-1) against Sara Kaufman (8-0, 8 TKOs).

You can play or download No Holds Barred here. You can also download No Holds Barred here. If one link does not work, please try another. The show is in MP3 format, so may take some time to download.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", by Ian Carpenter.

Make sure to visit the official boxing forum for No Holds Barred, the MySpace Boxing Forum.

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

Gladiator Magazine, for in-depth coverage of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, submission grappling, and MMA, as well as lifestyle articles on surfing, cars, movies, and more. Gladiator Magazine is available at any major bookstore and online at BJJMart.com or Jiu Jitsu Pro Gear.

BJJMart.com, your premier source for all Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gear, videos, books, and much more.

Wrestling 411, providing coverage of the sport of wrestling on TV, the Internet, and radio. Wrestling 411 is produced by Media Sports Productions, whose sole mission is the marketing and promotion of the sport of wrestling.

FightBeat.com, for news, results, interviews, and free exclusive videos from the worlds of boxing and mixed martial arts.

Fair Deal for Atlantic City Dealers, a campaign organized by an alliance of casino workers and unions in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to fight for justice in the gaming industry and achieve a fair deal for all casino workers.

Labels: Andy Pi, Art of War Fighting Championship, Beijing, BJJ, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, China, Eddie Goldman, Gracie, Konrad, mixed martial arts, MMA, No Holds Barred, Pride, Stephen Quadros, Strikeforce, UFC

NO HOLDS BARRED on PodOmatic

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with Konrad Pi, the co-founder of the Art of War Fighting Championship and president of the Adoria Entertainment Group in Beijing, China.

The next show for the Art of War Fighting Championship, scheduled for May 23 at the National Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium in Beijing, will feature a full card of mixed martial arts fights, headlined by a main event with rising Chinese star Wu Hao Tian facing the up-and-coming Japanese fighter, Yutaka Kobayashi. Also fighting on this card will be Rolles Gracie Jr. of Brazil, as well as Malik Mawlayi of Sweden taking on Fransino Tirta of Indonesia, and many other fighters from Asia and around the world.

This event will also be an international "coming out party for the Art of War Fighting Championship," said Mr. Pi in our lengthy interview. According to the Art of War, this show is being held "under the Patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates." There is expected to be in attendance "a delegation of over 300 students, athletes, press representatives and martial arts fans from the United Arab Emirates."

In addition, there will be a reunion of the first family of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the Gracies, who are also of course mixed martial arts pioneers. So far listed as confirmed to attend are Rickson Gracie, Royce Gracie, Renzo Gracie, and Royler Gracie. Other notables scheduled to attend this event are Demian Maia, Fabricio Werdum, Ricardo Liborio, Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro, Bas Rutten, Josh Barnett, Renato "Babalu" Sobral, Tim Sylvia, Jeremy Horn, referees Yuji Shimada and Big John McCarthy, Stephen Quadros, Michael Buffer, Todd Hester, Luca Atalla, and yours truly, Eddie Goldman.

The organizers of the Art of War Fighting Championship hope to use this event to begin to establish their promotion as not only the leading mixed martial arts company in China, the most populous country in the world, but also as one of the top world-class mixed martial arts events in the world. Accomplishing that, they are well aware, will take time, but this event is a major early step along that path.

In a lengthy interview with Konrad Pi, we discussed this May 23 event, the overall plans for the Art of War Fighting Championship, the top fighters on this card, and the rules of this event, which are similar to the old Pride rules. We also discussed the role of martial arts in Chinese history and culture, the importance of both grappling and striking to the Art of War Fighting Championship, the growth of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in China, cultural differences and perceptions between many people in China and the West which cause them to look at many aspects of the combat sports in differing ways, the relationship of the Art of War Fighting Championship organization to the government of the People's Republic of China, prefight medical testing required by the Art of War Fighting Championship, and more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here. You can also download No Holds Barred here. If one link does not work, please try another. The show is in MP3 format, so may take some time to download.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", by Ian Carpenter.

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

Gladiator Magazine, for in-depth coverage of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, submission grappling, and MMA, as well as lifestyle articles on surfing, cars, movies, and more. Gladiator Magazine is available at any major bookstore and online at BJJMart.com or Jiu Jitsu Pro Gear.

BJJMart.com, your premier source for all Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gear, videos, books, and much more.

Wrestling 411, providing coverage of the sport of wrestling on TV, the Internet, and radio. Wrestling 411 is produced by Media Sports Productions, whose sole mission is the marketing and promotion of the sport of wrestling.

FightBeat.com, for news, results, interviews, and free exclusive videos from the worlds of boxing and mixed martial arts.

Fair Deal for Atlantic City Dealers, a campaign organized by an alliance of casino workers and unions in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to fight for justice in the gaming industry and achieve a fair deal for all casino workers.

Labels: Abu Dhabi, Andy Pi, Art of War Fighting Championship, Beijing, BJJ, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, China, Eddie Goldman, Gracie, Konrad Pi, mixed martial arts, MMA, No Holds Barred, Pride, Sheikh Mohammed, UFC