On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with Konrad Pi, the co-founder of the Art of War Fighting Championship and president of the Adoria Entertainment Group in Beijing, China.

The next show for the Art of War Fighting Championship, scheduled for May 23 at the National Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium in Beijing, will feature a full card of mixed martial arts fights, headlined by a main event with rising Chinese star Wu Hao Tian facing the up-and-coming Japanese fighter, Yutaka Kobayashi. Also fighting on this card will be Rolles Gracie Jr. of Brazil, as well as Malik Mawlayi of Sweden taking on Fransino Tirta of Indonesia, and many other fighters from Asia and around the world.

This event will also be an international “coming out party for the Art of War Fighting Championship,” said Mr. Pi in our lengthy interview. According to the Art of War, this show is being held “under the Patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates.” There is expected to be in attendance “a delegation of over 300 students, athletes, press representatives and martial arts fans from the United Arab Emirates.”

In addition, there will be a reunion of the first family of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the Gracies, who are also of course mixed martial arts pioneers. So far listed as confirmed to attend are Rickson Gracie, Royce Gracie, Renzo Gracie, and Royler Gracie. Other notables scheduled to attend this event are Demian Maia, Fabricio Werdum, Ricardo Liborio, Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro, Bas Rutten, Josh Barnett, Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Tim Sylvia, Jeremy Horn, referees Yuji Shimada and Big John McCarthy, Stephen Quadros, Michael Buffer, Todd Hester, Luca Atalla, and yours truly, Eddie Goldman.

The organizers of the Art of War Fighting Championship hope to use this event to begin to establish their promotion as not only the leading mixed martial arts company in China, the most populous country in the world, but also as one of the top world-class mixed martial arts events in the world. Accomplishing that, they are well aware, will take time, but this event is a major early step along that path.

In a lengthy interview with Konrad Pi, we discussed this May 23 event, the overall plans for the Art of War Fighting Championship, the top fighters on this card, and the rules of this event, which are similar to the old Pride rules. We also discussed the role of martial arts in Chinese history and culture, the importance of both grappling and striking to the Art of War Fighting Championship, the growth of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in China, cultural differences and perceptions between many people in China and the West which cause them to look at many aspects of the combat sports in differing ways, the relationship of the Art of War Fighting Championship organization to the government of the People’s Republic of China, prefight medical testing required by the Art of War Fighting Championship, and more.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called “The Heist”, by Ian Carpenter.

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

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Thanks, Eddie Goldman
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Last weekend we had in Poland three different Grappling tournaments with athletes from our team fighting.
Saturday, the Polish ADCC Championship, where Patryk Horbatiuk took first place in the Open Division under 77kg. Sunday at the same place was the Polish Grappling Cup under FILA rules, and Michał Bańka took second place under 62kg. While [...]

For those who haven’t seen this yet, I couldn’t help myself but post some pics of the recent sambo match between Shinya Aoki and Fedor Elimenko this past weekend at M-1 Challenge. From what I’ve read it looks as though it was more ‘demo’ than an actual match with both fighters smiling the whole way through. -Luke

SPORTSNAVI

A smallish class tonight. And rather than additional instruction, Rodrigo devoted the entire class to specific work.It is really one of my favorite types of classes to have every now and then. I worked with Travis as we did specifics for side control…

Just a reminder for those who are looking to train with the spiderguard-master, Tinguinha! He is currently in Manila so don’t miss out! -Luke

MANILA, PH (04.29-30)
LOCATION: Deftac Sucat (www.graciebarraphilippines.com)
BAMF, Gymaholics Fitness Center
Park and Shop, Dr. A Santos Avenue Corner Santa Rita Street,
Sucat, Paranaque City, PH
DATE: April 29-30
CONTACT: toffyilagan@yahoo.com

HONG KONG, HK (05.02-03)
LOCATION: Impakt HK (www.impakt.hk)
DATE: May 2 & 3
TIME: May 2 (3-6pm), May 3 (2-5pm)
MATERIAL: 3hours each session, both days gi
FEE: 600 for 2-days (pre-book & pre-pay), 800 for 2-days (walk in on the day, if space available)
CONTACT: gi@samulime.net or gear88@gmail.com
***Space is limited to 30 students. Registration will close once we’ve reached 30 people. Please pre-book ASAP.

SINGAPORE (05.05)
LOCATION: Evolve MMA (www.evolve-mma.com)
1 Selegie Road, Unit #02-22, Singapore 188306
DATE: May 5
TIME: 8:30-10:30pm
MATERIAL: GI, 1 day
CONTACT: gordinhogb@hotmail.com

So I took all day yesterday off from jits, making it a total of THREE STRAIGHT DAYS off the mats. (Nyah, nyah to people who think I never rest!) Partly because I was still fighting the headcold, partly because I was up late Monday night and didn’t want to get out of bed Tues morning, and partly because last night I just plain wasn’t in the mood.

Today’s been hairy because opposing counsel finally filed in the Fifth Circuit a few hours ago, and in the Supreme Court about 10 minutes ago. So I have spent my day crafting my replies… however, I did sneak in some jits this morning, a crossfit class at lunch, and more jits tonight after I give my coworker Fredericka a ride home.

I love the adrenaline. Looking forward to rolling tonight in my emerald green gi. And choking someone.

Went to the regular class last night. Ultimately, I’m glad I went, although I really didn’t feel like it. I left work feeling mentally drained, got home and all I wanted to do was take a nap. I could think of a dozen reasons to stay home, but none o…

The women’s locker room at the Sport and Health© in Ballston Common Mall (Arlington, VA) this Sunday afternoon was as crowded as after work on a Monday evening. But instead of pulling running shoes out of their gym bags, these women pulled out Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gis!

Fifty/50 BJJ (Ryan Hall and Jen Flannery) were honored to host this go round of the East Coast BJJ Women’s Open Mat Series, and we are extremely grateful to our friends at Ouano International and Cat Fight Gear for donating female specific BJJ apparel to raffle off to the 22 ladies in attendance! These women represented schools from around the DC area, New Jersey, Richmond, Virginia Beach, and as far away as Canada: Bartman Jiu-Jitsu, BJJ Revolution, Fifty/50 BJJ, Fightworks, Gustavo Machado, the Krav Maga DC Training Center, Mecca MMA, New Jersey Martial Arts (Team Balance), and ladies from multiple Yamasaki Academy locations.

Women from white belt to brown belt, 110-150lbs, all shapes, all sizes, and all levels enjoyed this opportunity to train together in an open, non-competitive environment…a first for some of them!

This series began in the summer of 2007 as collaboration between then Lloyd Irvin student (now Fifty/50 BJJ Assistant Instructor), Jen Flannery, and Crazy 88 BJJ’s Julius Park…and the idea took off. Since that first exciting open mat, BJJ Revolution, Fightworks, and New Jersey Martial Arts have each hosted a session, usually bringing together 20-30 women in search of a chance to train with other ladies of myriad sizes and skill levels that so few are afforded at their home academies.

These ladies rolled, drilled, talked, tied and re-tied ponytails, tried on each other’s gis, went out for dinner, and followed it up (of course) with some quick shopping. For the first time it was the LADIES intimidating the men who were walking in the door for the co-ed open mat following the women’s training session, lol!

Best smelling group of sweaty glistening BJJ individuals I’ve ever come across! ☺

p.s. Stay tuned for information on the next East Coast BJJ Women’s Open Mat to be held at BJJ Revolution in Richmond, VA sometime this summer!

Jen Flannery
Women’s Instructor
Fifty/50 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
www.Fifty50BJJ.com

Original Article posted at Ouano International – News

I woke up around 8am in an empty house as Abraham had to work at 6am. Abraham’s instructions were to make myself at home so I walked around looking at all the decorations and starred out the windows at the city. Then it was time for me to
try and figure out breakfast.
I was a little fatigued from traveling so I wanted some coffee and everyone had told me how good the coffee is here. Well, that maybe but I didn’t see a coffee maker in the kitchen. I did however find some Nestle’s Instant Coffee so I decided that would have to do for now. Now I was time to eat. Even though I was given free range of everything in the kitchen, I didn’t want to destory all the food that I saw and some of the items I did want I could never seem to find all the pieces of the puzzle that led to me eating that food. For example, I found ceral but the only milk I saw open was almond milk. I saw regular milk but it wasn’t open and this isn’t my house so I feel awkard about breaking the seal. I ended up settling for some rice cakes and a Nutella/peanut butter type spread plus an apple.
About 30 minutes later I was hungry again and I found some left over beans & rice from the night before so I heated that up and ate it.
Right next door to Abraham house it appears they are building some kind of condo building, some while pounding several cup of coffee, I sit on an outdoor patio and
watch the construction workers.
Let me tell you one thing…..
there is no such thing as OSHA here. I watched the workers and I notice it looked like the most dangerous work environment possible. They were climbing a wooded frame 10+ stories carrying bricks, no safety ropes, the structure didn’t look remotely secure.

After getting hot outside I came back in and still had a fare amount of time to kill before Abraham got off work so I found and watched Pride 1.
I watched the dvd in an awesome, upstairs patio that Abraham would later tell me is where he is planning on putting mats down for training in his house. The indoor patio/flordia room reminded me of Daniel Moraes gym from the Arte Suave DVD.

After the dvd was over Abraham came home. We went out to get some roasted chicken, and ate more beans & rice. (Which I eat everyday at home so I love the menu here)
Abraham was tired so we chilled some more by watching 2008 Mundial finals.
After the DVD, Abraham had promised to take me to the Pharmacy to get some anti-inflammories for my knee. I have what I beleive to be a Stage 1 MCL Sprain, which is nothing major but could flare up and hinder my training as in the US I hadn’t sparred in 2 weeks in order to heal for this trip. Abraham is/was really excited to have an advanced training partner on the island and I didn’t wanna let him down.
At the pharmacy I got a drug for arthrisis that would require a prescription here in the states, and after taking it my knee pain was 90% gone in 1 hour. HOLY CRAP it was awesome.
After eating some more food Chile showed up with her 14 y’old brother Ugo and we went to the academy which is located in a Gold’s Gym. Upon arriving to Gold’s which is about 5-6 stories tall I realize it has more people in it that any health club i’ve every seen. It had what looked like hundreds of threadmills and versa climbers that were all in use. I don’t know if you were a single male this would be a good place to workout as the place was filled with women that all wore tight pants/shorts and all seemed to have the trademark Dominican KadonkeyDonk.
The training at the Gold’s takes place in a 24 ft Boxing Ring that they lay mat down in. Abraham warmed everyone up and I showed some techniques. Everyone very eager to learn from me as in the entire country there is 1 Blackbelt, 4 Brownbelts, and about 5 purples. This made me feel kinda elite hearing those stats. Even though the upper belts have so few training partners that are still really good and competition on the World Stage. After technique I rolled with everyone until I was exhausted.
Post training we went out to eat at roasted chicken joint in city, sat inside, most places don’t have windows, very open air.
We ate chicken, green bananas w/ onions, yuka w/ onions, and had the best REAL sugar soda, Merangue flavor.
Finally, we went home showered and passed out.

I begin this journey Sunday 26th, flying out of Richmond into Miami, where i supposed to meet up with my host, 2008 Purple Belt World Champion, Abraham Marte. After I land in Miami my trip encounters its first hicup. Now, since these trips are my small verison of my friend Valerie Worthington’s Vision Quest, I try to embrace everything experience on every trip good and bad. This hicup was that Abraham was running late and would end up missing my flight. I get flushed with a little bit of anxiety as I would be now traveling to a foregin country alone, which isn’t too bad, but when i get there I would have no place to go and nobody to see. Well, in the last 3 minutes before I was going to board the plane Abraham called me to advise his girlfriend would be picking me up from the airport and taking me around to entertain me for the 6-7 hours I would be ahead of him. Coolbeans !
Upon arriving in the Dominican Republic the first shirt I see on a native Dominican is a Bugs Bubby/Taz Gangster shirt that I haven’t seen in ages.
I traveled w/o any problem thru immigration and custom to walk outside and I was greeted by Abraham’s girlfriend Chile and her friend Natalie. They made a really awesome sign with my name on it as I was exiting the airport. After our introductions they start driving me to Natalie’s parent weekend beach house so I can wait for Abraham to fly into the country. This “weekend house” is like a resort.

About a small 3 story Condo with each floor being a unit.
I got introduced to all of her family. They all spoke a tiny bit of english and seemed tickled to have me as their guest. Abraham had giving them instruction to give me some beer so right after I got settled they gave me my first Dominican beer, a 32oz Presidente Light, and Natalie’s family treated me to some of the BEST home cooked dessert I’ve ever had. (Flan and a bunch of coconuty treats)
So, I drank some beers, ate of food and hung out on the most empty goregous beach, blue water, white sand, and no other people for 300 yards in each direction.
Several hours later we left to go pickup Abraham from the airport.
This began the hour trip went to his house (in downtown Santo Domingo),
On way people in the middle of the streets, drinking, dancing, waving guns, it was exciting. 9pm on a sunday night and the entire city feels alive and full of energy.
Upon arriving to Abraham’s house I was greeted by his mom. She had prepared us a dinner (baked chicken, stuffed with ham and wrapped in bacon. Salad, beans&rice, queso dip to wrap in tortilla, and finished with a strawberry shortcake type dessert)
(Lucky for me Abraham’s mom is/owes a catering company so the food was delicous.
It was a little late after dinner but abraham wouldn’t to show me a good time since he didn’t get to hang out for most of the day. He asked me what I wanted to do and I told him to take me to all the singing, dancing and drinking.
We went out for beer at a corner market, sat & drank.
After having a few beers I got tired so we went home to sleep.