No Holds Barred posts three shows with U.S. wrestler interviews from Beat the Streets Gala

<< Back to Articles
No Holds Barred ()
05/16/2011


No Holds Barred featuring veteran combat sports journalist Eddie Goldman, conducted numerous interviews with wrestling dignitaries during the U.S.-Russia dual freestyle wrestling meet in New York on May 5, 2011, in Times Square.

Goldman posted three different shows featuring wrestling interviews conducted during the Beat the Streets event.

No Holds Barred: Dan Gable, Rulon Gardner, Anthony Robles

No Holds Barred: Bobby Douglas and Bruce Baumgartner on the Future of Wrestling

No Holds Barred: Henry Cejudo, Jordan Burroughs, Zeke Jones, Jason Bryant, Kristal Hart

Below are descriptions of each show:

Gable, Gardner, Robles show  

Dan Gable, the legendary Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling and former coach who led the University of Iowa Hawkeyes to 15 NCAA Div. I titles, is retiring from his full-time position at Iowa. Now he will be working more on his own, and focusing on wrestling, both nationally and internationally. In our discussion, he emphasized the need for all wrestling organizations around the world to work together. He commented on changes which are needed in the current international wrestling rules, the lack of enough good college coaches in the U.S., and more.

Rulon Gardner, the Olympic gold medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling who defeated Alexander Karelin to win that gold medal in 2000, retired from competition after winning a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics. Now, at age 39, he is considering the possibility of returning to the mat and making another medal run. We discussed with him about his style fitting in better with the current Greco rules, his desire to help the U.S. team whether wrestles or not, the satisfaction he has achieved from wrestling, and more.

Anthony Robles, born without a right leg, added to his amazing life story by wrestling four seasons for Arizona State, becoming a three-time All-American, and going undefeated in his senior year en route to winning the 2011 NCAA Div. I national championship at 125 pounds. He is now retired from competition and is beginning a career as a motivational speaker. His message is that everyone can be unstoppable in life. He explained that he will still be around wrestling, why it is a love of his life, and more.

Douglas, Baumgartner show

Among his numerous accomplishments, Bobby Douglas was the first African-American to make a U.S. Olympic wrestling team, and the first African-American U.S. Olympic wrestling coach. He also coached Arizona State to an NCAA Div. I title in 1988, and at Iowa State coached Cael Sanderson to his record-setting four undefeated seasons and four
national titles. He also helped coach the U.S. team at this May 5 meet.

We spoke with Coach Douglas about his newly-released biography, "Bobby Douglas: Life and Legacy of an American Wrestling Legend", written by Craig Sesker, and its importance for wrestling. We discussed the many benefits of wrestling, some of the problems facing college wrestling, the importance of the Beat the Streets program for wrestling, the problems facing U.S. wrestling internationally including keeping wrestlers in the Olympic program, the need to tweak high school and college rules to make them closer to international rules, why American wrestlers are improperly prepared to wrestle at the Olympic level, and more.

Bruce Baumgartner is a four-time Olympic medalist in freestyle wrestling, having won two gold medals along with one silver and one bronze, all at heavyweight. He is currently the Director of Athletics at Edinboro University and on the board of USA Wrestling. We discussed with him the problem of American wrestlers not staying with the Olympic program long enough, the need to adapt to international rules while maintaining the tradition of American folkstyle, the difficulties facing college wrestling, and more.

Cejudo, Burroughs, Jones, Bryant, Hart show

After taking a hiatus of almost three years from wrestling, 2008 Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo is back competing in freestyle wrestling. In this meet, he defeated junior world bronze medalist Rasul Mashezov of Russia, 2-0, 4-3, at 55 kg/121 pounds. We spoke with him after his match about his return to wrestling and his plans for the future.

Jordan Burroughs, who won his second NCAA Div. I national championship earlier this year and dominated his opponents in an undefeated season, also gained much notoriety by winning the Hodge Trophy as the best college wrestler in the U.S. Now that he has completed his college career at Nebraska, he is focusing full-time on freestyle wrestling. At this dual meet, for the first time he faced a wrestler from Russia, Aniuar Geduev, and prevailed, 1-0, 2-1. He also is wrestling at 74 kg/ 163 pounds, which is actually two pounds lighter than he did in college. We spoke with Jordan Burroughs after his match to discuss his transition from folkstyle to freestyle wrestling and his plans.

In addition, we spoke right after this meet with U.S. National Freestyle Coach Zeke Jones about how the American wrestlers performed and what they need to do to improve their wrestling. And we spoke with Jason Bryant of USA Wrestling and Kristal Hart of the Kristal Hart Show on Manhattan Neighborhood Network about this meet and the entire experience of this event, which was held as part of the Beat the Streets Gala and fundraising effort.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes at:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=150801513&s=143441