NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with lifelong martial artist, former UFC and Battlecade Extreme Fighting matchmaker, TV commentator, and our senior correspondent, John Perretti.

Our subject was not the usual critique of what is going on in the combat sports, but the death of 43-year-old Eric Garner on July 17, 2014, in Staten Island, New York. Mr. Garner was allegedly selling loose cigarettes, and was approached by police officers. After being put by police officer Daniel Pantaleo in what many have described as a chokehold, Mr. Garner was pushed to the sidewalk and jumped on by other officers. Even after Mr. Garner repeatedly yelled "I can't breathe!" the group of police officers continued to push his head and body on the concrete. He then lost consciousness, and died soon after. A bystander shot a cell phone video of this incident, and it was widely posted online and shown on TV.

The official report of the New York medical examiner stated that compression of the neck and chest, along with his positioning on the ground while being restrained by police, caused his death, and that it was a "homicide." Also listed as contributing factors towards the death of Mr. Garner, who weighed in excess of 300 pounds, were bronchial asthma, heart disease, obesity, and hypertensive cardiovascular disease.

But on December 3, a Staten Island grand jury decided not to indict Pantaleo, who is white, or anyone else, in the death of Eric Garner, who was Black. This resulted in mass demonstrations around the U.S. and many other places protesting the killing of yet another unarmed Black man by white police officers. Many called this killing a "murder" and demanded justice, which they felt was not coming from the legal system.

In discussing this case, besides his expertise in martial arts and combat sports holds such as the many types of chokes, John Perretti offers something else as well. While many know about his credentials as a pioneer in MMA, grappling, and the martial arts and combat sports, it is not as well-known that, among the many facets of his life, he was an auxiliary police officer for ten years in New York's 13th Precinct. He thus brings a unique perspective to analyzing this situation.

We spoke with John Perretti by Skype Friday while he was in Japan (Thursday New York time).

"I feel that it was unjust, and not necessary," he said of the police tactics used against Mr Garner.

We discussed why the hold used against Mr. Garner was not the same as a martial arts chokehold, but more of a "clutch" which crushed the larynx. While different from the rear naked choke or choke sleeper seen in combat sports and martial arts, the move used by the police officer here did seem to fit the definition of the type of chokehold which is supposedly banned by the NYPD (New York Police Department).

We discussed the training of police officers, why he did not see the "physicality" which exists today among NYPD officers in the 1980s, why the hold used in this case was not a headlock, the growing problems and confrontations in the U.S. between police and the people, 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:

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 AmericanTopTeam.com.

Defense Soap, an effective, deep penetrating body soap with natural antifungal, antiviral, and antibacterial soap ingredients. Defense Soap is the best cleansing body soap for men and women athletes who are involved in contact sports such as MMA, wrestling, grappling, jiu-jitsu, and judo, to help their antifungal, anti-ringworm, anti-jock itch strategy. Check out their web site, at DefenseSoap.com.

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Labels: Black Lives Matter, choke, chokehold, death, Eddie Goldman, Eric Garner, John Perretti, No Holds Barred, NYPD, police

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Jon Strickland of the Billy Wicks Foundation and head coach of American Carny Style Catch as Catch Can Wrestling.

Based in South Carolina and now retired as a wrestler, Jon has been involved with many aspects of wrestling his whole life. He started learning about catch wrestling in the early 1980s, later trained under catch wrestling legend Billy Wicks, and wrestled in college.

The non-profit Billy Wicks Foundation was set up to preserve the catch wrestling legacy of Billy Wicks and "to spread catch wrestling" worldwide, he said in this phone interview, which was recorded Thursday. It will be "working with underprivileged children here in the rural South and southern Appalachia, and trying to get these kids interested in wrestling, starting out at an amateur level."

Catch wrestling, he said, where you can win by pin or submission, is currently experiencing "almost a boom". There are more and more tournaments and people training in it than in recent memory, and more and more grapplers from many other styles, including Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, becoming interested in training and competing in it, he observed.

He also had been involved as a coach for MMA, but now focuses on catch wrestling and grappling. He had a fighter on an amateur MMA card in August 2012 in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, but that show was cancelled after a fighter named Tyrone Mims fell ill and was taken to a local hospital. About an hour later, Tyrone Mims passed away. His death was the second in MMA in the U.S. in 2012, and the second in South Carolina, which only legalized the sport in 2009. Although the coroner's report would say that the cause of death of the 30-year-old Mims was "undetermined", it was obviously directly related to his MMA fight.

Arguing that the current unified rules of MMA have actually "made it more dangerous by the way they've done it," he said that the current emphasis on striking in MMA makes it questionable to say that MMA is safer than boxing.

"I don't know what the stats are. I haven't looked at them. But personally, I do not want my son fighting in MMA. That's it. I would try anything I can do to discourage that," he said.

"It's not putting down these guys. I got a lot of respect for them. If guys want to do it, that's great for them. I just know I don't want my loved ones, my family, doing it."

We discussed the risks stemming from blows to the head and brain injuries in MMA, as well as why he prefers submissions to striking. "I prefer wrestling," he said.

He also noted that wrestler and trainer Farmer Burns, who trained world heavyweight wrestling champion Frank Gotch in the early 1900s and played a key role in the development of amateur wrestling in Iowa, has not received proper credit. Burns, he said, is the "Godfather of American Grappling", and should be recognized as such.

We also discussed how the growth of catch wrestling around the world requires that the budding catch wrestling organizations work together; why he would like to see more major submission wrestling shows like "The Contenders", which was held in 1997; why "MMA has peaked"; some of the history of catch wrestling, including the experiences of the old carnival shows or "carny wrestling"; the devolution of the sport of professional wrestling last century into staged shows; and much more in this lengthy interview.

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.

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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/.

The First Annual Liberty Bell Classic East Coast King of Catch Tournament, organized by the North American Catch Wrestling Association in conjunction with Scientific Wrestling. This catch wrestling tournament will take place Saturday, August 31, 2013, at the Klein JCC, 10100 Jamison Ave., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19116. No points! No politics! Only submissions and pins win! For more information, go to http://nacwa.weebly.com.

Labels: Billy Wicks, boxing, carny, catch wrestling, catch-as-catch-can, death, Eddie Goldman, Foundation, grappling, Jon Strickland, MMA, No Holds Barred, submissions