The Rear Naked Choke, Featuring Joe & Ted

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—>

The Rear Naked Choke tonight will feature guest host “Bad” Brad Blackburn of the Seattle Tiger Sharks!

The power players of the International Fight League (IFL) are flooding Chicago, and the Choke is on hand to give you something a little extra, something a little bit different. We’re sitting down with the interesting people that make MMA fun.

On Thursday, Joe chewed it up with middleweight Matt Horwich of the Portland Wolfpack and heavyweight Antoine Jaoude of the SoCal Condors.

Horwich did his stint with his bible in hand and his feet up on a chair. He is very relaxed and pleasant outside of the ring. His dedication to MMA, self improvement and scripture is off the charts. If you’re a fan of Christian athletes, this is a must-listen segment. If not, then you ought to tune in to hear about the life of an interesting guy.

Where Horwich is unique in an eccentric way, Jaoude (you can learn how to pronounce it by listening!) is someone you would be proud to meet anywhere. He speaks five languages, grew up in Brazil and civil-war-torn Lebanon, has been to the Olympics as a wrestler (and aspires to go back), is working toward a law degree, and generally wants to change the world.

Jaoude seems capable of doing it. Engaging and intelligent, it’s almost hard to believe he is an elite-level athlete - in TWO sports! Despite his apologies, his English is very good, and because of the pace of his speech and his well-constructed thoughts, he is easy to understand.

Keep coming back to www.joeted.com for updates and new material. You never know who is going to grab a mic during the show! And do not forget to listen for the two-hour extravaganza on Saturday, Nov. 3 at 6:30 pm ET, as we go ringside right up until the throwdown at the IFL World Grand Prix semifinals!!!

PS - Joe just saw Chris Horodecki. The Polish Hammer says he’s ready, and he looks it!

Last Nights Show

DownloadIFL Power Hour!

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

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Call in:

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Join from your computer:

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Listen to the Recording:
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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.

To listen, find our player over here on the right ————————————–>
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!

He received his nickname on The RON Show, Featuring Joe & Ted, and now Andre “The Bagel Man” Gusmao has his name etched in MMA lore.

Gusmao’s first-round knockout of Mike Ciesnolevicz gave the New York Pitbulls a 3-2 win over the Quad Cities Silverbacks in the Team Finals of the International Fight League. 

Before the event, Joe & Ted welcomed four top guests: Bryan Vetell of the Pitbulls, Portland Wolfpack coach Matt Lindland, LA Anacondas 185-pounder Benji Radach, and Nevada Lions lightweight John Gunderson.  

To listen to our archive of shows, check out our player on the right, over there —–> somewhere, or CLICK HERE for our TalkShoe page, which has more detailed show info and different options for listening.

Joe & Ted were in and around the super bowl of MMA - THE IFL TEAM FINALS - in Hollywood, Fla., for three days in the middle of September!

On 9/18, Rory Markham of the Quad Cities Silverbacks joined Joe & a late-arriving Ted as a co-host for the full hour.  On 9/19, Seattle Tiger Sharks coach Maurice “Mo” Smith and IFL.TV editor Ben Fowlkes were with Joe & Ted from the start of the show, and just a few minutes in, IFL Commissioner and Co-Founder Kurt Otto made a surprise visit! 

Later, Chris “The Polish Hammer” Horodecki gave his insight to the IFL Finals.  Listen for his prediction of what he thought would happen when the Silverbacks met the Pitbulls! 

More important, listen to the 9/20 show and hear Ted get every single match of the championship correct!  That’s right - the novice went a perfect 5-0, on the record.

Markham had a broken hand and did not fight for the Silverbacks in Thursday’s Team Final.   So he agreed to a much more difficult assignment:  Getting behind the mic for co-hosting duties of The RON Show, Featuring Joe & Ted: Mundane Family Entertainment (With a Rear Naked Choke). 

Markham was a guest on the show July 2, in one of the preview shows for the IFL Team Semifinals.   A month later, he stopped the LA Anacondas’ Chris Clements in the first round and helped the Silverbacks advance to the Team Finals, in which they failed to defend their crown.

His teammate, Bart (Bartimus) Palaszewski joined Joe & Ted on Sept. 10, ahead of his unsuccessful Team Finals match with the Pitbulls Deividus Taurosevicius at 155 pounds. 

On that show was the Pitbulls’ unbeaten 205-pounder, Gusmao, who knocked out Rory’s long-time roommate, Ciesnolevicz (Mike C), at 53 seconds of the first round to give the Pitbulls the championship of the IFL.

Smith’s Tiger Sharks narrowly missed out on the playoff chase.   He was in town to support one of his fighters (or “players” as Ted likes to call them); “Bad” Brad Blackburn, who joined Joe & Ted on Sept. 3, battled Travis Cox to a controversial no-contest in a preliminary bout. 

While Smith was not getting Bad Brad ready, he took some time to trade jabs and kicks with Joe & Ted!  Fowlkes sat in to add some flavor and give an assessment of the undercard.  Everyone talked about OJ, and then Otto walked in.

Of course, Joe & Ted capped it off Thursday the 20th from ringside at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino with their third live show in as many days! 

Ya know when Mike & Mike or Mike & the Mad Dog take their show to the Super Bowl, and you never knew who was going to join them as a guest because there are just so many people around?  This was the same thing. 

This is the place to get something extra out of the IFL.  The show is not focused so much on the nuts, bolts and technical issues of the fighters, but geared more toward the entertaining aspect of the great and interesting people involved in MMA.  Jump on the train!

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.