The Rear Naked Choke, Featuring Joe & Ted

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Shawn Tompkins and co-host Tim Hughes join Joe & Ted the night before the IFL event at the Meadowlands. Shawn talked about his fighters, including Chris Horodecki, Jay Hieron and Alex Schoenauer. He also gave the scoop on his upcoming reality show, responded to the controversy with the IFL pushing fighters to compete under the banners of camps to which they do not belong, the Randy Couture vs. UFC lawsuit(s) and the IFL’s switch from Xtreme Couture to Team Tompkins. Tim kept things moving with his unmatched insight and professionalism, and gave his thoughts about fighters and their weight-cutting in a forum during the later part of the show.

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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!

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It’s The Rear Naked Choke, Featuring Riz & Kitch for this episode.

Kitch joins Joe, a.k.a. Riz, for a show as the guys descend upon Vegas a couple of days before the IFL’s season opener. They go over the news of the day and the fighter and coach sightings, plus they reveal the latest on Xtreme Couture, Team Tompkins and the relationship with the IFL.

Later in the show, Kitch talks about CrossFit workout regimen.

Download Riz and The Kitch in Vegas!

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Listen! Randy Couture sits down with Joe & Ted at the IFL GP Semifinals

To cap off the three-show extravaganza from the IFL World Grand Prix semifinals outside of Chicago, Randy Couture sat down with Joe & Ted for the Rear Naked Choke.

Here to corner Xtreme Couture member Jay Hieron of the LA Anacondas, Couture talked about his fighter, the team concept of the IFL and his muddled future as a fighter. The heavyweight champion then helped mentor Hieron to a unanimous decision victory over Donnie Liles, setting up Couture for another IFL appearance at the World Grand Prix finals Dec. 29 at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn.

Couture’s presence did not overshadow the Rear Naked Choke debut of NY Pitbulls coach Renzo Gracie. Renzo was his usual jovial self, talking about philosophy, the world of MMA and just about everything else. He gave his assessment of some of the fights, as Joe & Ted gave their predictions throughout the show.

For the second straight day, Carlos Newton sat in, although this time Ted was there to witness it. He admitted he was a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, although did not seem passionate about it. Oh yeah, and he talked about the fights, too!

Tim Hughes, the IFL’s ring announcer, helped kick off the show, and Joe & Ted then got to have Gareb Shamus, one of the league’s co-founders, on for the first time. Later, SoCal Condors coach Marco Ruas gave the guys some time, and IFL fighter liaison Shannon Knapp sat in. She was the league’s first-ever employee.

Bad Brad Blackburn co-hosted the Friday show with Ted not having arrived. John Gunderson respond to Newton’s prediction earlier in the show of a Waggney Fabiano victory. Gunderson was not pleased (as you can hear at the show’s opening).

Reese Andy led it off (he did Ted’s part in the intro), and Hieron joined in while Gunderson was around.

On the Thursday show, Joe welcomed the very unique Matt Horwich. The only way to describe Matt is, well, there is no way to describe him. You just have to listen.

Later, Antoine Jaoude taught Joe the correct way to pronounce his name. The least interesting thing about Jaoude is that he is a top-rated heavyweight MMA fighter. Born in Brazil, he met Ruas and did Vale Tudo from the age of 15. Later living in war-torn Lebanon, he learned many hard lessons that helped make him an Olympic wrestler. He still aspires to bring Brazil its first Olympic wrestling medal.

Oh, and did we mention he speaks five languages?

Thanks for listening, and keep coming back to www.joeted.com to hear the best of the IFL and MMA!!!

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Listen! Randy Couture sits down with Joe & Ted at the IFL GP Semifinals