NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Jerry Millen, senior vice president of the Rizin Fighting Federation.

Rizin's next show will take place Sunday, September 25, featuring the opening round of their 2016 open weight MMA tournament. The second round will take place Thursday, December 29, with the finals at the traditional Japanese MMA New Year's Eve show, on Saturday, December 31. All these shows are scheduled to take place at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, with international television and streaming availability to be announced soon.

We spoke with Jerry Millen by phone Thursday.

Discussing this open weigh tournament, all of whose participants have not yet been announced, he explained that it will feature a mix of veteran fighters and potential rising stars.

"Cro Cop's fighting, obviously. We haven't announced his opponent yet," he said.

"Also, there's a bunch of young, up-and-coming fighters that we've signed at Rizin, and also from various promotions, who will be fighting. Jiří Procházka, guys like that, really strong, young MMA talent coming up, who'll be fighting on the 25th to earn a spot to move up to December 29th, which will actually begin the eight-man portion of the tournament, where Wanderlei Silva take place." After being the victim of a hit-and-run car accident recently, Wanderlei had surgery and is now rehabbing, he added.

"Cro Cop hopefully will move on," he said, setting up a potential New Year's Eve tournament final of Cro Cop vs. Wanderlei.

A key reason for using veterans such as Wanderlei and Cro Cop is to bring back the old fans of Pride, he said. Much of MMA, and especially UFC, are becoming "homogenized," he argued. "It needs to be fun again." At the same time, as Rizin strives to become "Pride 2.0", it will develop young fighters who may one day become the new Cro Cops, Sakurabas, etc.

In addition, we discussed the upcoming MMA debut of three-time world wrestling champion Miyuu Yamamoto. She is scheduled to make that debut on the September 25th Rizin event against an opponent to be announced. Also on this card will be her son, Erson Yamamoto, making it the first time in MMA history where a mother and son will be fighting on the same card.

We also discussed the prospects for seeing Fedor Emelianenko in Rizin again, how Rizin operates as a federation and cooperates with numerous MMA promotions all over the world, how long Dana White might last with the UFC under their new ownership and management, and much more.

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Labels: Cro Cop, Eddie Goldman, Japan, Jerry Millen, Jiří Procházka, Miyuu Yamamoto, MMA, No Holds Barred, Rizin Fighting Federation, Wanderlei Silva

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with our longtime colleague and correspondent, Chris Thomas.

He will be covering this Saturday's Bellator 131 card at the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego, California, headlined by the Tito Ortiz-Stephan Bonnar, Will Brooks-Michael Chandler, "King" Mo Lawal-Joe Vedepo, and Melvin Manhoef-Joe Schilling fights.

We spoke with Chris Thomas by phone Wednesday.

Besides discussing the fights on the Bellator 131 card, we also noted how MMA legend Wanderlei Silva had originally been scheduled to appear at a pre-party kickoff event for that card the night before the fights, but was pulled from that, reportedly because of contractual obligations.

"For anybody to begrudge someone like Wanderlei Silva, who's given so much of himself to this sport for so many years, and to not allow him to make a living, is ridiculous in where the sport is today in 2014," he said. "That's horrible."

We also had a wide-ranging discussion on numerous topics, including the potential for robot fighting to become the future of combat sports, even in the wake of the poor ratings for the Robot Combat League TV show last year; the WSOF 15 card with three title fights, also on November 15; the proposal to have same-day weigh-ins in MMA and boxing, as is done in wrestling; in boxing, last Saturday's Bernard Hopkins-Sergey Kovalev light heavyweight title fight, and this coming Saturday's Wladimir Klitschko-Kubrat Pulev heavyweight title fight; the success of the Baltimore Orioles and failures of the New York Yankees in baseball, along with the reasons for the sharp increase in injuries in that sport; the issue of doping in sports; 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.

Takedown Wrestling Media, America's wrestling TV and radio shows, which are hosted by founder Scott Casber, and have been airing on radio and Internet for over 17 years. Takedown Media produces a weekly TV program seen in 54 million homes in the U.S. on DirecTV, Dish Network, and cable affiliates around the country, called Takedown TV. Takedown Media also produces the weekly USA Wrestling TV show for the governing body of the sport, USA Wrestling. For more information, go to TakedownRadio.com.

Labels: Bellator, Chris Thomas, Eddie Goldman, fighting, King Mo Lawal, Michael Chandler, MMA, No Holds Barred, Robot Combat League, Stephan Bonnar, Tito Ortiz, Wanderlei Silva, Will Brooks

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman discusses the final acts of the careers of MMA fighter Wanderlei Silva and boxer Floyd Mayweather, and whether they can expect storybook endings to their careers like Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees.

Wanderlei Silva recently posted a video announcing his retirement, and slamming his promoters, at: http://youtu.be/7HvZPUewM68.

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.

Takedown Wrestling Media, America's wrestling TV and radio shows, which are hosted by founder Scott Casber, and have been airing on radio and Internet for over 17 years. Takedown Media produces a weekly TV program seen in 54 million homes in the U.S. on DirecTV, Dish Network, and cable affiliates around the country, called Takedown TV. Takedown Media also produces the weekly USA Wrestling TV show for the governing body of the sport, USA Wrestling. For more information, go to TakedownRadio.com.

Labels: baseball, boxing, careers, Derek Jeter, Eddie Goldman, Floyd Mayweather, MMA, No Holds Barred, Wanderlei Silva