NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with former light heavyweight champion and current boxing trainer Eddie Mustafa Muhammad.

Originally from Brownsville, Brooklyn, he is now based in Las Vegas where he trains fighters at the Mayweather Boxing Club, including WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack and several other fighters.

We spoke with Eddie Mustafa Muhammad by phone Wednesday.

"I make world champions," he said, as we discussed recent fights by Badou Jack and other fighters he trains, including a string of highly questionable judges' decisions. Badou Jack has also recently been named by the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame the "Nevada Fighter of the Year."

"Boxing," he said, "is a business now. There's so much money involved in boxing which pay-per-view provided, it makes it a business. It's not a sport no more. That's just plain and simple."

While Eddie Mustafa Muhammad is a fighting man inside the ring, outside the ring he is a man of peace. And he does not like what he is seeing with so many young Black and Latino men being shot down in the streets by police.

"The civilians in the street are not starting this war," he said. "It's the police officers that are starting this war."

Note also that this statement is coming from a son of a New York City housing police officer.

"I'm not saying every officer is a bad police officer, because they're not," he continued. "But, you have these guys that have that that God complex because I carry a gun, I can basically do what I want to do.

"Remember, officers: When they made your gun, they made one for a lot of other people also. And you saw what happened in Dallas, Texas. May God rest those guys' souls and find a greater peaceful resting place in paradise. That was never supposed to happen."

He thus believes that these problems will not go away soon, and "It's going to get worse before it gets better."

But he does advocate a dialogue between members of the communities, civic leaders, and the police.

"I'm willing to do anything that turns this negative situation into a positive situation," he said. "And I know a lot of guys that grew up the same way I grew up, in the inner city, and made something out of themselves, are willing to go back into the inner city and put their celebrity on the line and do what they got to do."

Since so many boxers came from impoverished areas, he argued, they can play an important role in trying to solve this crisis.

As an example, he noted that the elementary school he attended in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in the 1950s and 60s, P.S. 125, has sat abandoned and in ruins for several decades.

"It's going to take money. Talk is cheap. It's going to take money for jobs. Talk is cheap," he reiterated.

We also discussed why he believes that the PBC (Premier Boxing Champions) has been good for boxing; how he has a gun and a concealed carry permit; why social media has been so important for boxing; how he is "on the Internet all the time"; and much, much more.

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Labels: boxing, civilian, Eddie Goldman, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, No Holds Barred, PBC, police, shooting, WAR

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.

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No Holds Barred is also available on mobile phones and iPads through Stitcher.

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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:

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