NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Adam Laporte, the owner-operator and coach at the Crank Gym in Eckville, Alberta, Canada.

He will be competing on the card of the Catch Wrestling Alliance International Invitational: The Rebirth.

This event will take place Saturday, June 7, in Collins Court in the John Wooden Center on the campus of UCLA, at 221 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, California 90095-1612. This invitational event will be held under catch wrestling rules, where you can only win by pin or submission. His opponent will be catch wrestler Jon Strickland.

We spoke with Adam Laporte by phone Tuesday.

Although he has 15 years of submission wrestling, jiu-jitsu, and MMA experience, he has only recently started training in catch wrestling.

Asked how he was selected to wrestle on this event, he replied, "My name was passed off. We had gone to train with Roy Wood in the U.K. last July [at the Snake Pit Wigan], myself and two of my younger wrestlers." Those wrestlers "outperformed all expectations," and one of them, Brooklyn Thomson, will also be wrestling in the teen division at this event.

"Roy and Andrea [Wood] were quite impressed, or so they told us, and passed along our information to Raul [Ramirez], who had been setting up this tournament."

We discussed how those with backgrounds in other styles of wrestling are making the transition to catch wrestling, and how it compares for them learning gi and no-gi grappling.

"It's a seamless transition," he said, "because the majority of the holds or the tilts or the pins that you're using, with just a little bit of tweaking, can turn it into a submission very simple. Whereas going to the jiu-jitsu side, you're almost having to relearn some of the fundamentals, because now you're allowed to be going onto your back or you're using the chokes and things like that, which typically in the wrestling side you don't see, it's prohibited."

And he sees many more wrestlers taking up catch wrestling.

"Once more wrestlers start to see that this is an option for them, I think the hold that BJJ has over combative grappling will start to come down a bit. It'll become more of a 50-50, because both are proven systems. Just one has a head start in the market, I guess."

We also discussed the need for more youth to start training in wrestling, the need for catch wrestling to have proper organization, his own preparation for his June 7 match, 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:

MMA World Expo. The mixed martial arts community comes to New York City July 26 and 27, 2014, for the fifth annual MMA World Expo, featuring the Fighters Source U.S. Nationals amateur MMA tournament, two days of ADCC no-gi and gi grappling tournaments, MMA fighters, seminars with world-class trainers, vendors, panel discussions, catch wrestling competition, and much more. The MMA World Expo takes place Saturday, July 26, and Sunday, July 27, 2014, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

Catch Wrestling Alliance International Invitational: The Rebirth. This invitational event will be held under catch wrestling rules, where you can only win by pin or submission. It will take place Saturday, June 7, in Collins Court in the John Wooden Center on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles, California. For more information, go to catchwrestlingalliance.com.

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/.

Labels: Adam Laporte, Alberta, alliance, Canada, catch wrestling, catch-as-catch-can, Crank Gym, Eddie Goldman, Los Angeles, No Holds Barred, submissions, UCLA

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with Jon Strickland of the Billy Wicks Foundation.

As the sport of catch wrestling is being revived, the issues of rules and organization are being discussed and debated. One of the key discussions involves whether or not to permit chokes. These holds, lumped into a general category of strangulations, were traditionally not allowed in the past in most catch wrestling matches. What to do today, with the growth of modern MMA, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and no-gi grappling, all of which allow chokes, is being debated.

We spoke with Jon Strickland by phone Saturday about this and other issues.

Saying he had "mixed thoughts on chokes in general," he noted how when the legendary Billy Wicks wrestled in "AT shows", i.e., athletic shows, which included both shoots and works, "they didn't use chokeholds." He added that while he had learned chokes in other styles such as jiu-jitsu, in his catch wrestling training, "I was never taught a chokehold."

Besides what was traditionally done in catch wrestling to keep the wrestling going, since many believe that chokes "kill wrestling," we discussed the issues of safety.

"With a choke, I think even a few seconds of having oxygen deprived of the brain could be dangerous. You just never what underlying conditions are there with somebody," he said.

"I spoke to a neurologist who I'm close with about the sport in general, and he said that he thought the chokes were very dangerous, and he had actually treated several people in his career who were horse-playing and practiced some wrestling moves, and a guy put another kid in a chokehold and the kid has a stroke, and causes the kid a seizure."

While the scientific research into chokeholds in the various styles of wrestling and grappling is just beginning, there is already a lot of evidence that concussions are a major problem in high school and college wrestling in the U.S.

A recent study by the National Academies "found that wrestling has the second highest rate of concussions per athlete exposure of the top fourteen most common men's and women's college sports." Only college football had more.

Thus, if catch wrestling wants to develop as a safer alternative to many of the existing combat sports, it must institute proper safety and health measures right from the start of its rebirth, and address the issue of the prevention and treatment of concussions.

We also discussed the need for eventually establishing a democratic, central governing body for catch wrestling to give it proper regulation as well as promotion and marketing in the crowded sports landscape. And we agreed that the sport will "never be taken seriously" without such a governing body.

As for his own wrestling career, he is still planning to return to the mat to wrestle on the card of the Catch Wrestling Alliance International Invitational: The Rebirth.

This event will take place Saturday, June 7, in Collins Court in the John Wooden Center on the campus of UCLA, at 221 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, California 90095-1612. This invitational event will be held under catch wrestling rules, where you can only win by pin or submission. His opponent will be Canadian MMA fighter and submission grappler Adam Laporte.

So while much remains to be done to revive this sport, we also discussed how interest in it is the greatest it has been in many years, how it is appealing to former college wrestlers as a vehicle in which to compete and possibly earn a living in wrestling, 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:

MMA World Expo. The mixed martial arts community comes to New York City July 26 and 27, 2014, for the fifth annual MMA World Expo, featuring the Fighters Source U.S. Nationals amateur MMA tournament, two days of ADCC no-gi and gi grappling tournaments, MMA fighters, seminars with world-class trainers, vendors, panel discussions, catch wrestling competition, and much more. The MMA World Expo takes place Saturday, July 26, and Sunday, July 27, 2014, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

Catch Wrestling Alliance International Invitational: The Rebirth. This invitational event will be held under catch wrestling rules, where you can only win by pin or submission. It will take place Saturday, June 7, in Collins Court in the John Wooden Center on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles, California. For more information, go to catchwrestlingalliance.com.

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/.

Labels: alliance, Billy Wicks Foundation, catch wrestling, catch-as-catch-can, chokeholds, chokes, concussions, Eddie Goldman, Jon Strickland, No Holds Barred, submissions

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Michael Rosales, coach of the Texas Catch Wrestling Club.

We spoke with him by phone Thursday.

"We are a catch wrestling club that we practice in the art and we compete whenever we can find actual catch matches," he said. "If not, we're competing in mixed martial arts or regular grappling tournaments."

He also noted that the club was actually "established in 2001, which makes us one of the oldest clubs of the neo-catch movement."

The next catch wrestling tournament in which wrestlers from the Texas Catch Wrestling Club will compete is the Monolith Grapplings Arts Catch Wrestling Tournament. Sanctioned by the ISWA (International Submission Wrestling Alliance), this tournament takes place Saturday, May 31, at Eastside Austin Elite MMA and Fitness, 507 Calles Street, Austin, Texas 78702.

While the Texas Catch Wrestling Club is currently based in Corpus Christi, Texas, we also discussed their plans to open a new, major facility in Houston.

Calling catch wrestling "a piece of our Americana," he discussed the style that is emphasized at Texas Catch Wrestling, how they teach wrestling as a martial art first and a sport second, and how they have been introducing the use of the pin to grapplers from other styles. Compared to those other styles, he said, catch is faster and "more exciting to watch."

We also discussed the current revival of catch wrestling, how it signifies that "a piece of American history is being brought back," what catch wrestling needs to do to continue to grow, 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:

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.

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/.

Labels: catch-as-catch-can, Corpus Christi, Eddie Goldman, grappling, Michael Rosales, MMA, No Holds Barred, submissions, Texas Catch Wrestling Club

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with Jon Strickland of the Billy Wicks Foundation.

While coaching wrestlers and fighters, and after recovering from a series of injuries, he will be returning to the mat to wrestle on the card of the Catch Wrestling Alliance International Invitational: The Rebirth.

This event will take place Saturday, June 7, in Collins Court in the John Wooden Center on the campus of UCLA, at 221 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, California 90095-1612.

This invitational event will be held under catch wrestling rules, where you can only win by pin or submission. His opponent will be Canadian MMA fighter and submission grappler Adam Laporte.

We spoke with Jon Strickland by phone Wednesday.

Since 2008, he said that he has had about eight surgeries, while training other athletes.

"Now it's time to focus on Jon a little bit," he said. "I'm going on 43, so I don't know how much longer obviously that I will be able to continue to step out on the mat and do this. I certainly look forward to the opportunity, and am real appreciative for them having me out to do this."

He also explained why wrestling is so important to him, why he hopes that his young son will eventually wrestle but not compete in MMA, and the similarities and differences between catch wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and no-gi grappling.

Another major topic was what catch wrestling must do to re-establish itself as a major sport. "We're going to have to work together for the betterment of the sport," he said. We thus discussed why a democratically-run governing body is needed for catch wrestling, 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:

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.

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/.

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

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

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Ralek Gracie, founder of the Metamoris Pro Jiu Jitsu Invitational.

Their second event, Metamoris II, will take place Sunday. June 9, at the Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California.

The rules of this jiu-jitsu event are easy to understand. There are no points. Each match has a 20-minute time limit. The only ways to win are by submission, or if there is no submission, judges' decision based on evaluating the entire match.

Metamoris I, held in October 2012 in San Diego, California, had numerous exciting matches involving some of the best grapplers in the world. This second edition features another stellar fight card.

Headlining this card will be a no-gi match between Japanese grappling and MMA sensation Shinya Aoki, who is the reigning ONE FC lightweight champion, and rising star Kron Gracie, who is coached by his legendary father, Rickson Gracie.

Numerous BJJ and ADCC champions will also face each other on this card, including: Braulio Estima vs. Rodolfo Vieira, Roberto "Cyborg" Abreu vs. Brendan Schaub, Mackenzie Dern vs. Michelle Nicolini, Andre Galvao vs. Rafael Lovato Jr., and Bill "The Grill" Cooper vs. Victor Estima.

Metamoris Pro Jiu Jitsu Invitational II will be broadcast live on an online pay-per-view at http://metamoris.com.

We spoke with Ralek Gracie by phone Tuesday about this important event.

In this interview, he said that Metamoris cannot be compared to events such the Mundials, also known as the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship, or other events where there are thousands of competitors, and at all levels. Metamoris, he said, has "just the top, top cream of the crop competitors." In addition, there is a strong cultural aspect to Metamoris.

The format for this event includes a card of single matches which puts "them against each other in an extremely entertaining environment that brings together the culture of Brazil through the music and the soundtrack of the event, and it brings together the art and the very contemporary artistic flair, and it brings together the pure art of jiu-jitsu."

He explained, "We hold exhibitions of jiu-jitsu, and we display the beauty and the art. And it's essentially non-violent." He continued, "We pretty much just create what we think people are going to want to see, and what we think is true to the art of jiu-jitsu, to the highest level that we can and what we know, and that's it."

Besides this event itself, we also discussed the changes in the rules since their first event, the potential for grappling events to grow as spectator sports, when they will announce their next show, 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:

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.

Beezid.com - Penny Auctions. Your #1 source for exciting auction shopping and outstanding deals on just about anything! Top rated, most trusted auction site online. Where do you shop? Beezid.com - Penny Auctions.

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/.

Labels: BJJ, Eddie Goldman, grappling, Jiu Jitsu, Kron, Metamoris Pro, No Holds Barred, Ralek Gracie, Shinya Aoki, submissions

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman discusses the technique used by MMA fighter Fallon Fox in her third-round submission victory over Allanna Jones Friday, May 24, at CFA 11, and the dangers of the continuing trend of more knockouts and fewer submissions in MMA. The Fallon Fox-Allanna Jones fight is now on YouTube.

Fallon Fox was quoted as saying that she first saw the move with which she won, a knee-to-the-neck choke, used by MMA fighter Shayna Baszler. Shayna Baszler confirmed by phone Sunday that she indeed uses this move, and said it is called the Dragon Sleeper.

Shayna Baszler is also a Level 1 Scientific Wrestler Trainer. Jake Shannon of Scientific Wrestling also confirmed by phone Sunday that she was taught this move by MMA fighter and catch wrestler Josh Barnett, and that MMA legend Frank Shamrock also teaches it. In addition, Jake Shannon said that the name of the hold comes from its use by the Japanese pro wrestler Yoshihiro Asai AKA Ultimo Dragon, who has trained in real catch wrestling as have many Japanese pro wrestlers.

As the first openly transsexual fighter in MMA, Fallon Fox has many haters who continue to downplay her skills. But as is demonstrated, the submission hold she used to win her fight, and to advance to the finals of the CFA women's 145-pound tournament, is a technique with quite a sophisticated lineage.

But while Fallon Fox was using this hold, the trend in MMA of there being more and more knockouts, and thus more concussions, is continuing. Interestingly enough, the issue of concussions is being addressed by, of all organizations, the leader in staged pro wrestling, the WWE. That group recently donated $1.2 million to the non-profit Sports Legacy Institute to fund a new research program aimed at developing a treatment for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The implications of all this for the real combat sports are discussed.

Also discussed are the latest odds for the combat sports and possible inclusion on the program of the 2020 Olympics. The IOC Executive Board meets this Wednesday, May 29, and will be coming up with a shortlist of sports to be considered for a final vote in September for inclusion in the 2020 Olympics. Those combat sports are wrestling, karate, and wushu.

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.

Beezid.com - Penny Auctions. Your #1 source for exciting auction shopping and outstanding deals on just about anything! Top rated, most trusted auction site online. Where do you shop? Beezid.com - Penny Auctions.

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/.

Labels: catch wrestling, concussions, CTE, Dragon Sleeper, Eddie Goldman, Fallon Fox, grappling, Jake Shannon, Josh Barnett, knockouts, MMA, No Holds Barred, submissions, transgender, transsexual, UFC, Ultimo, WWE

Labels: BJJ, Eddie Goldman, grappling, jiu-jitsu, MMA, Nationals, No Holds Barred, Rose Gracie, submissions, Worlds

Labels: BJJ, Eddie Goldman, grappling, jiu-jitsu, MMA, Nationals, No Holds Barred, Rose Gracie, steroids, submissions