No Holds Barred With Eddie Goldman

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with our colleague Chris Baldwin on the WAAR Room on Angry Afro Radio. A video of this discussion has also been posted on the Angry Afro Radio YouTube page.We spoke with her Tuesday, August 10.The Tokyo Superspreader Olympics ended Sunday, August 8, but the surge in cases of Covid-19 in Japan is continuing. We discussed how the Olympics were a key factor is worsening this pandemic, where now only patients with severe symptoms can be hospitalized to prevent a hospital bed shortage.The competition in Tokyo also saw the disgraceful action of a coach punching a horse who refused to perform in a modern pentathlon event when ordered by the rider. In wrestling, while accolades poured in for American heavyweight wrestler Gable Steveson's last second takedown to win his men's freestyle wrestling gold medal match, it appears that real wrestling will benefit little from the notoriety. Media reports indicate that he is likely soon headed to the fake

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with our colleague Chris Baldwin on the WAAR Room on Angry Afro Radio. A video of this discussion has also been posted on the Angry Afro Radio YouTube page.We spoke with her Monday, July 26.On July 24, unbeaten heavyweight contender Joe Joyce fought journeyman gatekeeper Carlos Takam at London's Wembley Arena in a quest to get a shot at one of boxing's many sanctioning body belts. Joyce was awarded a sixth-round TKO stoppage, but many questions were raised by his lackluster performance, including if the referee stoppage was premature. Takam landed hard overhand rights in the early rounds, although by the fifth round the momentum had shifted to Joyce.We discussed what Joyce's performance signifies, what we perceive to be his strengths and weaknesses, where he stands compared to other heavyweights, what may be next for him, and much more, including what is happening in the heavyweight title picture.With the Olympics proceeding as Tokyo's co

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with our colleague Chris Baldwin on the WAAR Room on Angry Afro Radio. A video of this discussion has also been posted on the Angry Afro Radio YouTube page.We spoke with her Sunday, July 18.There was an attempt on Saturday, July 17, to unify the four major belts in boxing's 154-pound division, as unbeaten fighters and belt holders Jermell Charlo and Brian Castaño fought in the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas, headlining a card shown on Showtime in the U.S. After 12 rounds, the consensus seemed to be among boxing observers online that it was a good, close fight, but that Castaño had done enough to win.The verdict, however, was a split draw. While many people accepted this decision since there were many close rounds and no fighter blew out the other, the score of one of the judges of 117-111 for Charlo was so ludicrous that Charlo himself even said it was too wide. Both Charlo and Castaño said after the fight that they would welcome a

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with our colleague Chris Baldwin on the WAAR Room on Angry Afro Radio. A video of this discussion has also been posted on the Angry Afro Radio YouTube page.We spoke with her Monday, July 12.It was yet another fiasco for boxing and its heavyweight division last week, as the postponement of a fight few wanted to see, the third meeting between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder, was announced. There were, however, few details initially released about just why this fight had to be postponed from its July 24 date, although media reports indicated that it was because Fury and several members of his camp has tested positive for Covid-19. This was later publicly confirmed by Fury's co-promoter, Bob Arum, after we recorded this show.We discussed the incredible stupidity and short-sightedness of these fighters not getting fully vaccinated and their promoters allowing this, what this means for this fight and the ever-shrinking possibility of a heavyweigh

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with our colleague Chris Baldwin on the WAAR Room on Angry Afro Radio. Videos of this discussion have also been posted on the Angry Afro Radio YouTube page.We spoke with her Thursday, July 1.We discussed defending the rights of all LGBTQ athletes, including Caster Semenya, the South African runner and two-time Olympic gold medalist, who was kept out of the Tokyo Olympics by the discriminatory policies of World Athletics against intersex athletes, and weightlifter Laurel Hubbard from New Zealand, who is set to become the first openly transgender woman to compete in an Olympics. We strongly defended their human rights, and those of all other athletes, to play, fight, train, and compete.The Tokyo Olympics are still set to start July 23, despite a new surge of Covid-19 cases in Tokyo and the rest of Japan, and even worse surges and lockdowns in many countries. We discussed how all these organizations which are involved in running what could v

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with Ed Suczewski, a U.S. sumo champion and president of the U.S. Sumo Federation.We spoke with him by phone Monday, June 7.Our main topic was the 2021 U.S. National Sumo Championships. This event will be held Saturday, June 19, at Dreamland at 2770 W Hwy 290, Dripping Springs, Texas 78620, which is located about 23 miles west of Austin. This is an outdoor venue. Tickets are sold out online, and there will be a live stream.The 2021 U.S. National Sumo Championships will be held at a time when sumo in the U.S. is in the midst of a revival. "Anytime people are going through something, they look for something else they can turn to. And I think for a lot of people, sumo is that thing," he said. "Life sometimes can just be full of all kinds of b.s. You put on a fake face at work. You put on a fake face in various relationships. But sumo is the realest, realest thing you can possibly be. "You step in that ring. It's win or lose. It's ancient, pr

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Mariah Holmes, a sumo wrestler, a member of the 2020 U.S. National Team, and a vice president and trustee of the U.S. Sumo Federation.We spoke with her by phone Saturday, May 29.Before starting to train in sumo in 2018, Mariah Holmes was a rugby player. While she no longer competes in that sport, she found that sumo was unlike rugby or any other sport in which she had been involved before."To me, sumo is not like every other sport. There's something really special about sumo," she said. "With rugby, I've done sports before, and so I've always been an athlete. But I think even for people who aren't athletes, they come into sumo and you realize right away, so it's not just physical. Yes, there is a huge physical aspect. So if you're hardcore, you want to have sweating, and you really work your body. Yes, there's a physical aspect, and you hit hard those tachiais [note: the initial charge of the wrestlers which starts a sumo match]. "They're no j

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with our colleague Chris Baldwin. This discussion will also be posted on the WAAR Room.We spoke with her by phone Sunday, May 9.On Saturday, May 8, Saul "Canelo" Alvarez stopped Billy Joe Saunders with an eighth-round TKO in front of a reported 73,000+ fans at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Canelo displayed devastating power to defeat the previously unbeaten Saunders and cause multiple fractures to his orbital bone, necessitating surgery. With this win, the immensely popular Canelo, who already held two of the four major super middleweight belts, captured his third and cemented his status as the consensus top pound-for-pound fighter.We discussed controversies emerging from this fight, including how the fight was progressing at the time of the stoppage, why it was correct for Saunders's corner to stop the fight when they did, why Saunders did not quit, how the view of some in boxing that fighters must "go out on their shields" is ba

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with sumotori, judoka, writer, and intellectual Kevin Carter. This is the second part of a two-part interview.We spoke with him by phone Wednesday, April 14.In the 1990s, sumo in Japan began to reach a wider international audience, including in the U.S., with the emergence of several stars who were not Japanese."You had Akebono, Musashimaru, Konishiki," Kevin Carter recalled.Konishiki, an American born in Hawaii, was the first non-Japanese-born wrestler to reach ozeki, the second-highest rank in sumo. Many believed that he would have been promoted to yokozuna, the highest rank, had he been Japanese.In 1993, Akebono, also an American born in Hawaii, became the first non-Japanese-born wrestler and the first American to be promoted to yokozuna.Musashimaru, born in American Samoa and who grew up in Hawaii, became in 1999 the second foreign-born wrestler to be promoted to yokozuna. "And then you had a few other Hawaiians who were in juryo, whi

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with sumotori, judoka, writer, and intellectual Kevin Carter. This is the first of a two-part interview.We spoke with him by phone Wednesday, April 14.For Kevin Carter, sumo has been a lifelong passion.While growing up, "I would come home after school, and the only thing I really watched on TV was sports," he said. "I watched a lot of baseball, football, basketball. I also played hockey, too. But I was watching every Saturday that I could, and very occasionally they'd put on sumo."I immediately fell in love with sumo. It was like, 'this is great, man!' These are guys who are obviously athletes."This was in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and many of the greats of Japanese sumo at that time were sometimes featured on the sports highlight shows of that era."I just totally fell in love with sumo."He still had not competed in sumo, though. When he was at Harvard, he played football. He had developed an affinity for Japanese culture by the time he began

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with our colleague Chris Baldwin on the WAAR Room.We spoke with her by phone Sunday, April 11.It was just confirmed a few days ago by both fighters' camps that Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua have been made several concrete offers for where and when their heavyweight title unification fight might be staged this summer. The reported favorite location is Saudi Arabia. One reason for this is the difficulty of holding this fight in a large venue in the U.K. or U.S., which usually holds such events, because of pandemic restrictions. Another is that the monarchs in Saudi Arabia are willing to overpay to host this fight in order to claim to the world that they are building a modern, tolerant country, despite their horrific record on human rights.When Joshua first fought in Saudi Arabia in December 2019, and Fury performed on a WWE show there in October of that year, there was limited and muted criticism of them for bringing their business to this

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with our colleague Chris Baldwin. This discussion will also be on the WAAR Room, which is hosted by Chris Baldwin..We spoke with her by phone Sunday, March 28.Our topics included:*** Dillian Whyte scored a fourth-round stoppage over Alexander Povetkin in their heavyweight fight Saturday, March 27, in Gibraltar, to avenge a knockout loss to Povetkin last year. We examined what this means for the careers of both Whyte and Povetkin, Whyte's notable act of sportsmanship right after the fight was stopped, what may be holding up the signing of the Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua fight to crown an undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, and what it all means for the heavyweight division in general.*** At the 2021 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, held March 18-20 in St. Louis, history was made as five of the ten national champions were African-Americans, the most ever. But there are some in the American wrestling community who reacted neg

On this special edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with our colleague Chris Baldwin. This discussion will also be on the WAAR Room, which is hosted by Chris Baldwin.We spoke with her by phone Monday, March 22.We discussed the 2021 NCAA Div. I Wrestling Championships which were held March 18-20, and some of the lessons from it, including problems holding back the sport of wrestling, and the potential of sumo. We spoke about the growth of LGBTQ sports, including the World Gay Boxing Championships, founded by Martin Stark, which will begin in 2023, and which will be featured on a virtual live event hosted this week by Unleashed LGBTQ. We also discussed the 2022 Gay Games in Hong Kong, some of the most memorable interviews conducted for No Holds Barred, this past weekend's knockout victories by Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Artur Beterbiev, how No Holds Barred has and always will combine analysis of combat sports competitions with critical views of the social issues and questions in these sports, and mor

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman marks the 15th anniversary of this podcast, No Holds Barred, with a monologue on the show's history, principles, and evolution. Where boxing and various styles of wrestling presently stand, the corruption embedded in the sports world, the banality of the combat sports, bright spots like the revival of amateur sumo in the U.S., and much more are assessed.Please also subscribe to the No Holds Barred page on Patreon for much more No Holds Barred content.The PodOmatic Podcast Player app is available for free, both for Android at Google Play, and for iOS on the App Store.The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.No Holds Barred is sponsored by:LenneHardt.com, the home of Lenne Hardt, the legendary MMA and sports announcer, voice actor, singer, actress, and comedienne. Lenne is also known for her jazz vocals with her Lenne Hardt Jazz Cabaret Band. For more information, to book her, or to order a

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with investigative journalist, academic, consultant, and expert on match-fixing and corruption in international sports, Declan Hill.We spoke with him by phone Friday.It is well-known that there is widespread cheating and corruption in world sport, including state-sponsored doping. But corruption in world sport is so deep-rooted that state-sponsored organizations and media sites are popping up that claim to be anti-corruption, but which actually promote the corrupt activities of their sponsors. "Follow the money," advised Declan Hill."This has been going on for almost a decade now. And it's linked, listeners, to two of the greatest geopolitical scandals in sports. And when I say geopolitical, I'm not exaggerating. This is like John le Carré, those international spy thrillers, meets 'Chariots of Fire'. This is big-time, major politics, and it's about the survival of states," he said."We're moving beyond sports corruption. We're moving beyon

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Eros Armstrong, the women's heavyweight sumo wrestler on the 2020 U.S. National Team.We spoke with her by Skype Wednesday.Based in Austin, Texas, Eros Armstrong has already found much success after competing in sumo for just a little over a year. Previously she had wrestled in high school and college, and trained in boxing and the hand-to-hand combat techniques of the military. But for her, sumo wrestling is special and "different from the brutality of boxing and American wrestling."Sumo wrestling, she said, "when you step into that ring, it's like soul combat. It's the only way I can describe it. "You go in there. You're getting in the zone. As soon as the clap happens, it echoes throughout your whole being. And whatever was a problem in the outside world just melts away. The only thing that's there is that center, your center. You're in the center of the center. And the person that is in there with you is going to move. That is all that matte

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Justin Kizzart of Dark Circle Sumo.Besides founding this sumo club in Austin, Texas, he still regularly competes in the sport and is a trustee of the U.S. Sumo Federation.We spoke with him by phone Thursday.Even with the coronavirus pandemic still raging, this was a busy year for Dark Circle Sumo. Along with Dark Clan Fight Lab, they hosted the inaugural Consulate's Cup open invitation sumo tournament in Austin on October 10, 2020. Justin Kizzart himself participated in the Second Annual Queen City Sumo Open hosted by the Ohayo Sumo Association, held December 13, 2020, in Franklin, Ohio, near Cincinnati. There he finished third in the men's lightweight division.With coronavirus vaccines now starting to be available, 2021 looks to be an even bigger year as sumo in the U.S. revives.So far, Dark Circle Sumo is scheduled to host two important events. The first Women's Invitational National Sumo Tournament, hosted by heavyweight sumo wrestler Eros A

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Ed Suczewski, a U.S. sumo champion and president of the U.S. Sumo Federation.We spoke with him by phone Wednesday.Sumo is a sport to which Ed Suczewski, who competed in American folkstyle wrestling while in school, said he was "instantly drawn". He eventually began competing in sumo, and from there his involvement in and commitment to the sport rapidly grew. But it was not his original intention to become a leader in it. "In terms of getting involved in the leadership, it's not something I ever really set out to do, but it was just a need that I saw needed to be filled," he said. "I felt the federation had been around for a long time, and a lot of the people who came before me did a lot of great things to move the sport forward. But I felt like I had some ideas and maybe a new direction I could bring to the table. So for that reason, I wanted to get involved and just kind of see what I could offer."Encouraging and supporting the local and regi

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Leslie Collins and Laurie Collins of Sumo Kaboom.We spoke with them by Skype Sunday.The Sumo Kaboom podcast offers a unique and entertaining take on the ancient and still thriving sport of sumo. Mixing discussion about the latest bashos (tournaments) in Japan with sumo history, new developments in amateur sumo in the U.S. and elsewhere, and, of course, comedy, this weekly podcast is both an introduction to the sport and an education in it. And it keeps your interest from start to finish, regardless of how much you know or don't know about sumo.Laurie Collins, joined by her sister Leslie who both often talk over each other and laugh as they each speak, explained about the reasons they started a podcast on sumo."Initially it was just an interest. And we started this podcast earlier this year," in March, said Laurie Collins. "I sort of pitched it out there to Leslie because I was like, 'I need a creative project.'"Their choice of a topic for the p

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Martin Stark, the founder and CEO of the World Gay Boxing Championships.The plan is for the inaugural World Gay Boxing Championships to take place in Sydney, Australia, in February 2023, coinciding with Mardi Gras and World Pride in that city. The World Gay Boxing Championships are open to all LGBTQ people but are also straight-friendly, and thus open to anyone.We spoke with him by Skype Monday (Sunday in the U.S.).The origins of the World Gay Boxing Championships are directly related to Martin Stark's own story."It literally started last year when I was in the hospital. I have the rare autoimmune condition Addison's disease, which basically means my adrenal glands do not produce cortisol, which is the same condition that President JFK had," he said. "Now, last year I had hospitalization because of my disease. And to motivate myself, I contacted the Gay Games in Hong Kong to inquire about the boxing program. And they came back saying unfortunat