No Holds Barred With Eddie Goldman

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman reposts an interview with Steve Nelson, who fought in and ran the Unified Shoot Wrestling Federation (USWF) in the 1990s in Amarillo, Texas. This organization, which was one of the most successful local promotions of its time, held fights under what were called shootfighting rules, with only open hand strikes allowed, but with all submissions as well as kicks and knees permitted. It was thus a mixture of catch wrestling and MMA. Steve was also a headliner in the company's most famous fight, when he took on Ralph Gracie, who had defeated him in under a minute in 1996 under no holds barred rules in Battlecade/Extreme Fighting 2 in the Mohawk community of Kahnawake near Montreal. The rematch took place August 22, 1998, as the main event of the USWF 11 show in Amarillo. This fight was my selection as the 1998 Fight of the Year in mixed discipline combat sports. A video of this fight can be seen here. This interview was originally recorded in August 2008