The Rear Naked Choke, Featuring Joe & Ted

November has been the best month ever for The Rear Naked Choke!

Thanks to you, the fans, we’ve already set a new single-month high for traffic just halfway though November. Here’s a quick chronological recap of how we got here this month:

The first show of the month was on the first day of the month, when Joe hosted solo from the IFL hotel and had on Matt Horwich and Antoine Jaoude, both of whom were getting set to fight two days later, and came out winners to advance to battle for the respective IFL middleweight and heavyweight belts.

The next night, Bad Brad Blackburn sat in for Ted next to Joe. They had unbeaten (but injured) stud Reese Andy in first (Reese did Ted’s part of the opening intro). Carlos Newton stepped in and made a bold prediction about the John Gunderson-WaggneyFabiano match, and then Horwich grabbed the floor for a minute to explain why he was overweight at the weigh-in a few hours earlier. Bad Brad wasn’t buying his excuse.

Gunderson then joined the show and was none too pleased by Newton’s remarks when Joe & Bad Brad passed them along. Shortly after Guns sat down, Jay Hieron joined the fray, and could not get over the fact that Bad Brad was co-hosting.

Ted made it into the mix for the Saturday show from ringside at the Sears Centre outside Chicago. This amazing show was kicked off by the unmistakable voice of IFL ring announcer Tim Hughes, and kept rolling with IFL CEO and co-founder Gareb Shamus.

It kicked into another gear when the electric Renzo Gracie joined Joe & Ted and then went over the top when, to everyone’s shock, Randy Couture sat down for a few minutes at ringside! On hand to corner Hieron, this was either the first or one of the first exclusive interviews Couture had given since he recent departure from the UFC!

Marco Ruas, the King of the Streets, gave the guys some time, and then one of the First Ladies of MMA, Shannon Knapp, sat down. Newton also joined the show for a second straight day.

After a travel day, Joe & Ted were back at it again Monday, Nov. 5. Fresh off his quick knockout win, middleweight Benji Radach stepped aside from a family function to give his thoughts about beating Brent Beauparlant, and looking ahead to his belt showdown with the enigmatic Horwich.

Once again, thanks Benji, and here is an official “Happy Birthday” to your bro from The RNC!

As if things could not get better, on the Nov. 12 show, news was just hours from becoming official that Shad Lierly would be fighting Chris Horodecki for the IFL lightweight belt Dec. 29 at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. All over the rumor, Joe & Ted were the first to get Lierly to talk about the rematch of what most MMA fans considered the fight of the year.

The witty Tim Kennedy, who will be on the preliminary bout card that night against Elias Rivera, gave the guys some time.

Elisabeth Nuesser, the founder of the awesome and smoking-hot FightChix clothing line, lit it up at the end! Ted has Elisabeth pegged as a sultry celebrity lookalike - find out whom!

Thanks for listening, and keep checking back for improvements to the site. You can use the links to comment or give suggestions. And do not forget to get your FightChix stuff. Mention The Rear Naked Choke in your email to info@fightchix.com and receive some discount or freebie mini-gift luv from the Fight Chic herself!

Our mySpace page is coming, too. Keep on the lookout for more info!

In our next show on October 22nd, we’ll look at the upcoming IFL World Grand Prix Semifinals! Here’s the fight card we’ll be discussing:

IFL World Grand Prix Semi-Finals
Saturday, Nov. 3
Sears Centre in Chicago, Ill.

Lightweight
Wagnney Fabiano vs. John Gunderson
Chris Horodecki vs. Bart Palaszewski

Welterweight
Delson Heleno vs. Brad Blackburn
Patrick Healy vs. Jay Hieron

Middleweight
Benji Radach vs. Brent Beauparlant
Matt Horwich vs. Brian Foster

Light Heavyweight
Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Alex Schoenauer

Heavyweight
Roy Nelson vs. Reese Andy
Antoine Jaoude vs. Bryan Vetell

Just about all of these guys have been on the show so you can always catch up with past shows here.

And, as always, we welcome your participation in the live show.

IFL 185-pounder Brent Beauparlant, who grew up just a stone’s throw away from the revered Forum in Montreal, is a closet Boston Bruins fan. 

Beauparlant confessed his dirty little secret to Joe & Ted on the Oct. 8 show.  He joined the guys, he thought, to talk just about his upcoming IFL Grand Prix semifinal match with top-seeded Benji Radach, but the conversation went well beyond.   

As often happens, guests get caught up with the Joe & Ted.  Brent, who fights for the Toronto Dragons, ended up spending nearly the entire show with them, talking about everything from living on three continents in the span of a year, to his time with Canada’s national wrestling team, to the state of MMA in the Great White North.

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or CLICK HERE to get to the full listing of past shows and upcoming episodes.

Speaking of the schedule, Bad Brad Blackburn of the Seattle TigerSharks will be a guest on Monday, Oct. 15 at 9:30 EDT.  Bad Brad is coming off his no-contest against Travis Cox.  He has just gained a spot in the vaunted 170-pound class for the IFL Grand Prix, in which he will battle No. 1 seed Delson Heleno of the champion NY Pitbulls on Nov. 3 in Chicago.

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN FIGHT?

The IFL is conducting its “Draft” - an extensive open tryout in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.  Joe & Ted are keeping on top of the stories that come from this unique talent search.  Nevada Lions 155-pounder John Gunderson, who was on the Sept. 20 show from Hollywood, FL before the IFL Team Finals, emerged from such a tryout last year!

In addition, Joe & Ted will be exploring the angles on the Grand Prix, with shows on Oct. 15, 22 and possibly 29.  They’ll be in Chicago for one-hour sit-down shows Nov. 1 & 2 before the two-hour ring-side extravaganza Nov. 3 at 5:30 pm EDT, right up until the bell rings to kick off the IFL Grand Prix semifinals!

LISTEN, OR GET CHOKED OUT!

Joe & Ted give you the best of the International Fight League (IFL) right here!

They started September, the month in which the IFL’s team champion will be crowned, by having on “Bad” Brad Blackburn, who will be fighting on the card Sept. 20, prior to the championship match between the Quad Cities Silverbacks and New York Pitbulls. The assistant coach of the Silverbacks, Steve Rusk, also gave his assessments 17 days before the championship throwdown.

Do not forget to stay tuned and find out what our favorite ring girl, Emily Miller, has been up to!

LISTEN HERE!

To listen, follow the link above to our Talkshoe page and subscribe to the feeds via iTunes or whatever you like. You can also download the files directly from the page, or even listen directly through the Talkshoe player. When shows are going on live, you can stream them through Talkshoe, as well.

The focus of the show has been the IFL for more than six months. Let’s take time to see how Joe & Ted took an idea and turned it into the hottest show on the web.

From December until March, the show was in the experimental phase, being put together in a live test environment. When Emily joined the show as a guest one March evening, the show took a turn and the focus immediately shifted to the personalities and storylines of the IFL.

There is no other place this side of “Battleground” that can boast this guest list (in order of appearance):

Emily “Ring Girl” Miller
Ken Yasuda (Tokyo Sabres coach)
Ben Fowlkes (IFL.tv Senior Editor)
Gideon Ray (Toronto Dragons)
Ring Girl Lori
IFL Commissioner Kurt Otto
Brian O’Shea (MMAMadness.com marketing)
Rory Markham (Quad Cities Silverbacks)
Mike Ciesnolevicz (Quad Cities Silverbacks)
Jay Hieron (LA Anacondas)
Vladimir Matyushenko (Tokyo Sabres)
Erik Owings (NY Pitbulls)
Jamal Patterson (NY Pitbulls)
Alex Schoenauer (LA Anacondas)
Shawn Tompkins (LA Anacondas coach)
Wayne Cole (Tokyo Sabres)
Igor Zinoviev (Chicago Red Bears coach)
Chris Horodecki (LA Anacondas)
Jeff Hamlin (MMAMadness.com writer)
Vince Waddell (MMAMAdness.com czar)
Pramit Mohapatra (MMAMadness.com managing editor)
Benji Radach (LA Anacondas)
Drew Archer (IFL operations manager)
Brad Blackburn (Seatle TigerSharks)
Steve Rusk (Quad Cities Silverbacks assistant coach)
Andre Gusmao (NY Pitbulls)
Bart Palaszewski (Quad Cities Silverbacks)
Maurice Smith (Seattle Tiger Sharks coach)
Bryan Vetell (NY Pitbulls)
Matt Lindland (Portland Wolfpack)
John Gunderson (Nevada Lions)
Brent Beauparlant (Toronto Dragons)

Joe & Ted also have done live shows from Chicago and the Meadowlands before IFL events, and will be doing shows from the sites of the Team Finals the week of Sept. 20, from the Grand Prix Semifinals the week of Nov. 3, and from the Grand Prix finals the week of Dec. 29.