The Rear Naked Choke, Featuring Joe & Ted

There are numerous reports out there that the IFL is being sold to the UFC/Zuffa. Joe will post his take soon.

This week on The RNC:

Matt “The Law” Lindland talked about the Rampage Jackson arrest and his Affliction fight with Fabio Negao, plus his future with the promotion. Matt was fast-and-loose, poking fun at his opponents’ name and making light of Rampage’s legal troubles in his own unique way. The Law certainly did not seem fazed with his fight so close.

 

 Matt "The Law" Lindland, Affliction and UFC Fight Night roundtable and predictions on The Rear Naked Choke! [61:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Joe & Ted spent the early part of the show talking about the HUGE weekend in MMA, with Affliction’s pay-per-view taking on the UFC’s Spike card. They covered the topics, went over much of the cards and even made some predictions at the end of the show.

The other highlights:

Ted talked about his experience acquiring one of the brand-new iPhones.

Joe talked about Anderson Silva’s no-risk fight with James Irvin, and the brilliance of the UFC brass in putting together the Fight Night card to battle the competition.

The guys will be watching the fights on both cards involving all the former IFL stars, including Bad Brad Blackburn & Rory Markham, who both have co-hosted The RNC!

Listen to the Show!

 

 Matt "The Law" Lindland is Running For Office! [73:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Matt “The Law” Lindland (R.) joined Joe & Ted to talk about his run to become Representative of the 52nd District Seat in the Oregon, but do not think for a second that he was politically correct.

Matt was not afraid to mix it up with the guys, telling dirty jokes and enjoying the light-hearted approach favored by the hosts. Here is his site for election.

The Law talked about his upcoming fight July 19 against a yet undetermined opponent, and the chance to fight three times for Affliction.

He did not shy away from telling the story of why the UFC and he do not see eye-to-eye, and even gave an account of the Nate Quarry-Kalib Starnes “fight” from the recent UFC card, not to mention his opinion of the fighters in that organization, including Anderson Silva.

Prior to Matt, Joe & Ted welcomed back Charles Michelson, who was producer for a while when it was called The Ron Show, Featuring Joe & Ted: Mundane Family Entertainment.

Charles recounted the show’s beginnings and gave some deep background about how the show got off the ground. He also gave his expert insider’s assessment of how the show is doing now.

It’s a great history lesson as we move closer to the video age of The Rear Naked Choke!

The Rear Naked Choke, Featuring Joe & Ted is the best MMA entertainment outside of the ring and the cage!

Listen here every Monday at 9:30 p.m. Eastern, 6:30 Pacific for the best of the IFL and MMA!

JUMP ON THE TRAIN!

<—pass it down—>

Bad Brad Blackburn gave The Rear Naked Choke and exclusive announcement - what a way to follow IFL heavyweight champ Roy Nelson - and there was controversy about Xtreme Couture and the IFL uncovered on Monday’s show on www.joeted.com.

Bad Brad revealed on the air to Joe & Ted and The RNC nation that he will be fighting again in the IFL, with his next match to be against Delson Heleno of Renzo Gracie Jiu Jitsu on April 4 at the Meadowlands in NJ.

Brad was his usual self, making easy conversation and keeping Joe & Ted in stitches with his endearing sarcasm. Because his announcement was breaking news, the guys did not reveal Blackburn was even coming on the show until they brought him on the air.

By the time the show was finishing, he was running out the door to practice his jiu jitsu!

Maybe he should train with “Big Country”, whose game has no weakness right now.

Coming off his dominating knockout of Fabiano Scherner in the IFL’s 2008 opener Feb. 29, Roy was in top form in his showdown with Joe & Ted.

Roy gave a quick recap of his fight, then offered fans of The RNC a free T-shirt at his web site, www.bigcountry.tv.

But it is Roy’s insights into the business and political sides of MMA that set him apart. The discussion turned to the issue in the IFL in which Xtreme Couture abruptly switched its camp name to Team Tompkins due to the ongoing legal battle between Randy Couture and Zuffa, which operates the UFC.

Just two days before the IFL card was to take place, the Xtreme Couture camp entity asked the IFL to let it out of the naming commitment, which the promotion did, scrambling immediately in an obvious show of good faith. Within minutes of the request, the name Xtreme Couture was wiped clean of the www.IFL.tv site and all references were adjusted to read “Team Tompkins”.

Because Shawn Tompkins has fronted the core group of fighters associated with Xtreme Couture (the Anacondas), it was a logical and simple solution to make the name adjustment to Team Tompkins.

That should have been the end of the story.

What was not an issue at the time was that the fighters on the card representing Xtreme Couture/Team Tompkins were, with the exception of 145-pounder Dennis Davis, not regular training members in the Las Vegas-based establishment.

However, when Santino DeFranco and Lew Polley, members of American Top Team, were submission losers in the Feb. 29 card, it seemed to suddenly become a point of contention that the pair were not affiliated with Xtreme Couture, which contends it was forced by the IFL to have DeFranco and Polley fight under its banner.

Here is the camp’s statement, taken from the Xtreme Couture blog. Note the date of March 1, the day after the IFL card was contested:

Statement on Team Name Change from Xtreme Couture to Team Tompkins

March 1, 2008 ·

Yesterday our lawyers appeared in Judge Togliatti’s Las Vegas courtroom to address the previously continued preliminary injunction hearing. After many hours of argument, the judge agreed to fashion a remedy (without any admission or waiver or affect on any date and event other than the February 29th IFL event) based upon what Randy Couture had already advised the court he was doing and /or more than willing to do (and had already taken steps to do): (i) That he had not planned to attend the February 29th IFL event in Las Vegas; (ii) that, given the foregoing, he was not cornering at the IFL event on the 29th; and (iii) that the team name “Xtreme Couture” would not be used in the February 29th event (for the reasons discussed below). We don’t believe that anyone with full-knowledge of the facts could consider this a victory. In fact, it is a non-event.

However, the background story is a little more interesting. Simply put, the IFL was attempting to use the ”Xtreme Couture” name without properly representing the gym by using its own fighters.

On January 8 we submitted a list of seven (7) fighters to the IFL that would be available to fight in the IFL event from the Xtreme Couture gym. The fighters were: Dennis Davis 145lbs (16-8), Jay White Heavyweight (2-5), Phil Friedman Heavyweight (1-0), Eric Uresk 155lbs (2-3), Josh Haynes 185lbs (8-8), Johnny Hendricks 170lbs (3-0), and Karina Taylor 135lbs (0-1).

The IFL informed us that Dennis Davis would be booked to fight a prelim bout against Ian Loveland and that none of our other fighters would be utilized. According to the IFL none of our fighters were a proper matchup for Mario Sperry’s team of Brazilian fighters. The IFL intended to field a team of Benji Radach (who due to injury was replaced by Josh Haynes), Santino DeFranco and Lew Polley. Radach had been a member of Shawn Tompkins’ Anacondas team, while DeFranco and Polley are from American Top Team.

Lew Polley and Santino DeFranco are tremendous athletes and excellent fighters. However, they are members of American Top Team not Xtreme Couture. American Top Team is a great squad and by all means seem to be deserving of having their own team in the IFL. We have 35 athletes that train in our Las Vegas gym and proudly wear the Xtreme Couture patch on their shorts during fights. Yet the IFL decided to field a team called “Xtreme Couture” without putting any Xtreme Couture athletes on the team. The Patriots didn’t show up in the Super Bowl with a bunch of players from the Packers. Why would the Xtreme Couture name be put on the line and not be represented by Xtreme Couture fighters.

It is because of this that the team name was changed to ”Team Tompkins”.

The IFL may have been misguided in putting fighters under another camp’s banner, but this did not seem to be an issue until all of a sudden DeFranco and Polley were victims of first-round submissions.

The IFL has been doing the same thing since its inception and no one made an issue of it.

For instance, Jake Ellenberger, who had an impressive win over Pat Healy on the Feb. 29 card, is a member of Matt Lindland’s Team Quest. But Ellenberger fought in the IFL Team Finals in September for Pat Miletich’s Silverbacks when Rory Markham was injured.

Miletich had another Team Quest fighter, Gerald Harris (a member of the cast of The Ultimate Fighter 7, incidentally), join his Silverbacks for the team semifinals against Tompkins’ Anacondas, and he was knocked out by Radach.

Radach originally was supposed to fight under the Xtreme Couture banner for the card in question Feb. 29, but because he broke bones in his neck during training was replaced by Josh Haynes. Although Radach has trained in Florida with American Top Team for years, no one seemed to have a problem with the star being associated with the Anacondas, Xtreme Couture or Team Tompkins.

While valid, the timing of the Xtreme Couture statement seems curious at best, sour grapes at worst. There had been plenty of time for them to step in and either ask for the name association to be removed or demand the IFL utilize true members of the camp for all events in which it was participating.

It was a subpar move by an otherwise top-flight outfit with some of the most respected people in the business.

On The Rear Naked Choke, both Nelson and Blackburn assessed the situation and added special insight. Give it a listen and comment through the site or via email at TheRNC@joeted.com.

Also, do not forget to visit Fightchix. When you make your order, drop them a line on info@fightchix.com and mention The Rear Naked Choke to get 15% off!

JUMP ON THE TRAIN!

<—pass it down—>

Shad Lierley’s toe is fine. Fine enough to allow him to fight for the IFL featherweight belt.

Matt Horwich has the IFL’s middleweight belt and cauliflower ear.

Mario Sperry is the “Zen Machine”.

The three were guests of Joe & Ted on the Rear Naked Choke over the past couple of weeks. Shad and Matt were on the week after Mario.

Shad will battle Wagnney Fabiano on April 4 in the Meadowlands for the featherweight title. Matt puts his middleweight title in the line Feb. 29 at the Orelans in Las Vegas against Tim Kennedy. That same night, Mario’s camp will make its IFL debut against Xtreme Couture, mentored by Shawn Tompkins.

Shad is coming off a now-famous broken toe - the toe broke through the skin. He talked about the injury and how his buddy (and ours), Bad Brad Blackburn, was nowehre to be found when the blood was spewing all over the place. OK, so we might be embellishing a bit, but we did push Shad to bring Bad Brad back east to corner him for the title fight.

Shad also talked about the famed fight of the year of 2007 with Chris Horodecki and said he still would love a rematch, even at 155 pounds, so our thoughts that Shad’s move to featherweight would shelve such a potential rematch might be premature, and hope springs eternal!

Just before we left Shad, he threw the phone over to Reese Andy. Reese’s gym houses just about all of the former Seattle TigerSharks. Get an update on what Reese is doing to get Shad ready!

Matt then came on and Ted hit him right away (not literally). He wanted to know what Matt thought of himself against Anderson Silva. Matt broke it down in his own way after he adjusted the phone (and sent Joe into hysterical laughter) so he could hear the guys. He said in his first appearance on The RNC that his goal was to eventually be at the level to fight Silva. Politics and contracts between promotions will prevent that, though.

The spiritual Horwich, who was reached at Matt Lindland’s Team Quest, recently was a star at the Portland TrailBlazers game, along with teammate Ryan “The Lion” Schultz. While he did not get into too much detail about that, Matt did talk about his hair styles, gave his thoughts on some secrets as to why he has never been knocked out despite taking some massive blows, and his social networking. We asked him to add us on mySpace and make us a top friend, and he did it! THANKS MATT!!!

note: The same offer remains open to all. We’re at www.myspace.com/rncjoeted and we love being in your top friends! It helps the show grow!

Mario sized up his camp entry. The Zen Machine talked about how he got to the IFL. He gave his thoughts about the system, and the MMA world in general.

Mario has been traveling constantly in the months since arriving in the USA from Brazil. It was exceptionally nice of him to take the time to join Joe & Ted. Mario was so concerned that the battery on his cell phone was going to run out during the interview that he made them call him back on a different line! That’s class, ladies and gentlemen!

SWITCHING GEARS

If you have not seen the show “Fight Science” on the National Geographic channel, then stop what you’re doing and make a point to set the DVR for it RIGHT NOW.

Bas Rutten, Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz and Dean Lister are run through a series of experimental scientific tests, and the results stunned the compilers of empirical data.

The only down side was that if you knew nothing about MMA organizations, you would think the UFC was the only one in existence. This was an observation made by Ted and confirmed by Joe.

We have seen in the past that the UFC is not above leveraging their footage and general access to mainstream and other media under the conditions that the written or televised piece keep exclusive mention to their promotion. No one from The RNC has checked into confirming that was the case for this episode of “Fight Science” because we really do not care that much, other than to just levy our positive and negative criticism of the show.

Speaking of Bas Rutten, a hearty RNC congratulations goes out to “El Guapo” for being named the VP for fighter relations at the IFL (from “Fight Science” you can see he’s still in fighting shape!). Fear not, he’ll still be bringing his top-notch analysis to the IFL’s telecasts. Now Bas gets to use those endless connections to help bring talent into the IFL and help create sensible and exciting fighter and camp matchups.

Additionally, Kurt Otto will be able to focus more on the ring-related aspects. As the new head of the business side, Jay Larkin, said last week, the team concept changing to the camp vs. camp setup means we’re not so much talking about a league except in official name. Without a league, there is no sense of having a commissioner. The good thing is, you’ll still be able to hear Kurt, Bas and everyone involved in the IFL inside and and outside of the ring right here on The Rear Naked Choke!

More big news this week was the announcement that the April 4 card will include a total of three title matches:

Featherweight (145 pounds): Wagnney Fabiano defends vs. Shad Lierley

Welterweight (170 pounds): Jay Hieron defends vs. Mark Miller

Light Heavyweight (205 pounds): Vladimir “The Janitor” Matyushenko defends vs. Jamal Patterson

We already have had on Jay (”Nice playa, nice!”), and we’ll eventually have on everyone on that list. We’ll also keep focusing on the Feb. 29 card and will continue to have guests from that lineup!

JUMP ON THE TRAIN!

<—pass it down—>

But first, check out the IFL’s sharp new logo. Sah-weet!!!

Now, back to the show…

Joe & Ted can be hard to keep up with, even for an Army Ranger. Tim Kennedy joined Joe & Ted for zombie talk in preparation for his Feb. 29 middleweight IFL title fight with Matt Horwich. It is the third straight iron fist the enigmatic Horwich will face, coming off Grand Prix wins over Brian Foster and Benji Radach to take the belt.

(Tim Kennedy, after beating Elias Rivera Dec. 29)

Joe & Ted prepared Tim for the awkward style of Horwich by making him as uncomfortable as possible. Part of it was talking about The Spinning Back Claw, which must be seen to be appreciated. Kennedy rewarded the guys with an invitation to his potential victory party in Las Vegas (provided Joe buys the hamburgers). Las Vegas is the hometown of Roy “Big Country” Nelson, who is a man of firsts (and fists).

Roy is the first heavyweight champion in the history of the IFL (see how he did it). He was the first guest in the history of The Rear Naked Choke (well, the first one we had after the name change). Depending on the order of the fight card, he might be the first fighter to successfully defend a belt.Listen to Tim and Roy, and check the rest of the archives for the coolest show in MMA. Joe & Ted run it fast and loose.

COUPLA THINGS:

Shad Lierley is going to fight for the featherweight title on the April 4 Meadowlands (New Jersey) card against Wagnney Fabiano. If form holds true, you’ll be able to hear both Shad and Wagnney size up their fight on The Rear Naked Choke. Xtreme Couture is now part of the IFL. Our pal for whom the company is named, Randy Couture, is in a dispute with the UFC and its owners, with the IFL involvement possibly being an issue in a suit that apparently was filed last week.

The competing IFL team is from the Xtreme Couture camp, which is where the fighters train. The IFL is not using his full name or likeness in any advertising in any way (outside of the Xtreme Couture camp branding).

Many of those fighters are IFL athletes with existing contracts. Shawn Tompkins, the former coach of the Anacondas, is the mentor. Randy Couture is a trainer, but he is not a signed IFL coach like Pat Miletich, Renzo Gracie or Matt Lindland (who always has to remind Matt Horwich to bring his cup).

Shawn is one of Randy’s top guys and a business partner of his. We have enjoyed having Randy, Shawn and Xtreme Couture athletes like Jay Hieron (nicePLAYAnice) and Chris Horodecki on The RNC in the past and look forward to having them and their colleagues on in the future, as their involvement with the IFL continues to build.

(Shawn Tompkins in between Joe & Ted)

Finally, we’re not doing a show on Martin Luther King Day, but we’ll instead do it Tuesday, at the usual time. Check it out at 9:30 pm Eastern, 8:30 Central, 7:30 Mountain, 6:30 Pacific, or 2:30 GMT (Wednesday on the other side of the Atlantic frickin’ Ocean). You can listen to the show while watching Australian Open tennis with the volume down!

JUMP ON THE TRAIN!

<—pass it down—>

Ryan “The Lion” Schultz and Jay Hieron joined Joe & Ted on The Rear Naked Choke fresh off their title-winning performances at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. They talked about their championship fights. A little. But you can get that almost anywhere, or even from just watching the fights.

What you cannot get anywhere else is what they gave Joe & Ted.

Does Ryan (pictured above in red trunks, fighting Chris Horodecki for the title) really try to look like a lion? Has he ever had a couple too many beers before a van ride to the airport with Joe & Ted? Where is North Platte, Nebraska, and who is the toughest guy from that small town?

Listen and find out. Get some laughs while doing it, and get to know the first lightweight champion in the history of the IFL right here on www.joeted.com!

What about Jay (pictured above, getting his IFL welterweight champion’s belt) ? Find out what it will take for Jay to agree to co-host the show, and with whom he will co-host. Find out his real name, and why he changed it. Live through the gut-wrenching decision he had to make in his personal life just weeks before the welterweight title fight victory over Delson Heleno, and listen as he lifts spirits and describes the origination of the greatest catch phrase in MMA!

There also was breaking news on The RNC about the first title defenses of Ryan The Lion and Jay. Find out who they’ll fight, when they’ll fight them and where it will take place. And listen up to get their assessment of their opponents!

UP NEXT

Coming up Monday, January 14, it’s new heavyweight champion Roy “Big Country” Nelson and middleweight title contender Tim Kennedy.

The live stream is 9:30 Eastern, 8:30 Central, 7:30 Mountain, 6:30 Pacific, and 2:30 GMT Tuesday.

Big Country knocked out Antoine Jaoude on Dec. 29 at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut to take the heavyweight belt. Roy was the first guest after the show was re-Christened as The Rear Naked Choke, and he also joined Joe & Ted in person on the show a couple of nights before his title fight. He will take on Fabiano Scherner, fighting in front of the hometown fans in Las Vegas on Feb. 29.

Tim also fought at Mohegan Sun and pounded out a quick win over local favorite Elias Rivera. He will battle Matt Horwich with the middleweight belt at stake on the Leap Day Vegas card. This will mark Tim’s second appearance on The Rear Naked Choke.

Did we mention Tim is an American hero who is an Army Ranger but somehow does double-duty as an MMA ass-kicker? Visit our mySpace page or go to www.joeted.com to listen to the show. We encourage live participation, and you can catch the live stream while interacting with other listeners and fans, so check it out.If you’re going to be on the road (or at the mall, or at dinner), you can listen by phone. Or you can download any show at any time.

Drop us a note on mySpace or through email at TheRNC@joeted.com!

JUMP ON THE TRAIN!

<–pass it down–>

Bad Brad Blackburn of the Seattle TigerSharks and Pat Healy of the Nevada Lions joined Joe & Ted for a preview of the IFL Grand Prix semifinals in the 170-pound division on the Oct. 15 show.

Bad Brad will be fighting top seed Delson Heleno of the NY Pitbulls, while Healy will take on Jay Hieron of the LA Anacondas. 

Brad kept calling him “Deleno”.  He candidly talked about his no-contest against Travis Cox, with an ending that was, to say the very least, controversial.  Brad made sure to ask Ted if he was going to fight Emily “Ring Girl” Miller, and called out Ted for being a “sleepy head” and not partying with him after the Florida fight.

Pat revelaed that Chicago will be a homecoming for him, since he went to college in Southern Illinois.  He could not have picked a better place to have his semifinal fight against Jay Hieron, he said, explaining that in his travels he has passed the Sears Centre (site of the Grand Prix on Nov. 3) so many times and has a lot of friends in the area that will be attending.

This show started with a special treat, as IFL PR Manager Jerry Milani joined Joe & Ted on the air to recap the first round of the 2008 IFL Draft, which was held over the previous weekend in Costa Mesa, Calif.  Jerry said that of the 200 or so participants, some 20 to 25 warranted a second look.  Matt Lindland, Ken Shamrock, Marco Ruas and Bas Rutten were among the assessors of the talent.

Keep track of the personalities of the IFL right here!

The show, as always, was availabe live via Talkshoe.  Here’s the information you need to listen to / participate in the next show:

Talkcast ID: 25116

Date: Mon, October 22, 2007

Time: 09:30 PM EDT

How to participate:
Call in:

1. 1. Dial:(724) 444-7444
2. 2. Enter: 25116 # (Talkcast ID)
3. 3. Enter: 1 # or your PIN

Join from your computer:

1. Become a TalkShoe member
2. Download and install TalkShoe Live client
3. Click here to join the Talkcast

Listen to the Recording:
As always, if you missed this event or want to hear previous recorded episodes click here!

Chris Horodecki, one of the most dominant fighters in MMA the past two years, was at his best outside the ring when he joined Joe & Ted on The RON Show at the Meadowlands moments before the IFL Semifinals.

LISTEN HERE! 

Hanging around long enough to earn co-host status, The Polish Hammer gave Joe & Ted nuggets you will not hear anywhere else.  Horodecki covered everything, from MMA to the movies, and was able to defend against the guys, who were armed with “dirt” about the 19-year-old superstar given by his coach and mentor, the LA Anacondas’ Shawn Tompkins.

Leading off the show guest list, Tokyo Sabres heavyweight Wayne Cole stepped in for a few minutes, giving a preview of his fight with Bryan Vetell of the NY Pitbulls (it did not turn out well for Wayne).

Then Chicago Red Bears coach Igor Zinoviev stepped to the mic.  Igor is still training two to three times per day and looks like he could (and should) fight any day.  He hinted at a return to the ring.

It came time for a change of pace, and that’s when Emily Miller, our resident MMA expert, took some time to sit with Joe & Ted before starting her evening’s duties as a sexy IFL ring girl.  Keep track of Emily all the time on The RON Show!

Chris jumped in and carried things for quite a while, then the guys from MMA Madness took over and closed it out.  Hear senior writer Jeff Hamlin, czar Vince Waddell and editor-in-chief Pramit Mohapatra talk about the genesis of the site that is taking the world of mixed martial arts by storm!

The guys mixed and mingled all week with the movers-and-shakers of the IFL, and it all culminated on the air!  With Joe & Ted, you never know who is going to show up!

LISTEN HERE!