Podcasts about asian mma

Welcome to the Pro Sports Podcasters Podcast!NEW WEBSITE !!! https://www.prosportspodcasters.comDISCORD !!!https://discord.gg/zXeGaybrc2SORARE !!!https://sorare.pxf.io/AobjK7-Nii Wallace-Bruce, Justen Williams and Corbert de Ronde MMA Analyst and reporter John Hyun Ko based in South Korea.-We ask him about the development of MMA in Asia, and specifically how it fits in to the Korean culture.-We also discuss a few of the top stories being discussed in MMA today, and the perception of each major promotion.LINKS- Be sure to sign up for our Newsletter on our website to qualify for our sponsor Giveaways! -Place your bets on the SPORTS INTERACTION BETTING WEBSITE! For a fantastic sign up bonus use this link - https://media.sia.com/C.ashx?btag=a_11368b_575c_&affid=7486&siteid=11368&adid=575&c=https://www.youtube.com/c/CobeLifehttp://www//twitter.com/PPodcasters#NoSportLeftBehind#prosportspodcastersIntro music by Dave Misener

In this ICIS podcast, Mathew-Jolin-Beech, the European markets reports, and Li Li Chng, the Asian markets reporter, discuss the European and Asian MMA and PMMA markets.We discuss how the high energy costs in Europe, coupled with the soft global demand picture and reduced running rates in Asia are affecting the international picture.

Drake Riggs returns in the newest episode of Broadened Horizin, where he chats with some of the biggest stars of the Asian MMA scene. In this episode, he spoke with Kyoji Horiguchi, Hiromasa Ougikubo, Rina Panchan, and Kyohei Hagiwara.

Drake Riggs returns with the 4th episode of Broadened Horizin, where he talks with some of the biggest stars on the Asian MMA market. This show's lineup includes: - Kenta Takizawa - Tomo Maesawa - Yutaka Saito - Jiri Prochazka What's next post-MMA for Tomo? What differences does Jiri see between UFC and RIZIN? All that and more as #RIZIN25 draws near.

In this episode of Broadened Horizin, Drake Riggs talks with top Asian MMA stars, Kanako Murata, Kane Watanabe, Koji Takeda, and Juri Ohara. Check it out.

Jeff Chan is an MMA fighter and YouTube content creator. Jeff was born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His MMA YouTube videos regularly hit tens of thousands of views - some even hundreds of thousands. Jeff is a new breed of fighter - one that is not only athletic, tough, and hardworking, but also understands social media, content creation, and building / sustaining an audience. He was recently signed to One FC ( the largest Asian MMA organization in the world) - and with a spectacular first win in the octagon, he is sure to make a big splash in the worldwide MMA scene. I'm a big fight fan, and I have always felt that there are many parallels between martial arts and "real life". I think fighters like Jeff Chan give insight into the mental fortitude it takes to compete at the highest levels - and what that journey, or process, can teach a person about themselves. This was Jeff's first podcast so we were both really excited to dive in and discuss things that he has not yet talked about in other interviews. I had a great time discussing MMA, Jeff's career path, his YouTube channel, fighting in the time of COVID-19, and much more. Enjoy the podcast guys!!! Jeff's Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt1ZR07apYANZ3MmlbipIXg/videos Jeff's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mmashredded/ If you have any comments, requests or questions please reach out, my email - roybntz@gmail.com

ONE Warriors Code Recap, TFC, UFC Aukland Update - Asian MMA Podcast Let’s start off with a quick recap of ONE Championships Warrior’s Code And If you regularly watch ONE Championship be sure to check out the live-streamed commentary and breakdowns that I have been doing during the shows with John Ko of Kumite TV. They stream live on the Asian MMA YouTube Channel, Links are in the show notes. This was a pretty good card, it had The main event was a Muay Thai title bout that saw Petch take home the strap. Because that was the main event though this card was held in a ring instead of a cage which I am just not a fan of. In the co-main Reinier De Ridder took a UD over Leanardo Ataides and positions himself as the top challenger for Aung La’s Middleweight strap. In other action on the card, Luri Lapicus made easy work of Marat Gafurov earning a first-round submission win. Koyomi Matsushima got a beautiful TKO win over a very powerful Jae Woong Kim One of my favorite fighters Sunoto earned a UD over Nurul Fikri The only woman's bout on the card saw Itsuki Hirata get a third round stoppage over Nyrene Crowley. Itsuki looked fantastic, and she seems to be taking a page out of Stamps book with all of her between round dancing and really trying to put on a show. I’m wondering if she's trying to angle for a match with Stamp, let’s see. I’ll say tho, the stamp dance rolls off the tongue a lot easier than the Itsuki dance. ONE Championship has also announced that they will be holding tryouts for ONE Warriors Series in Japan on March 8th in Osaka. Without a doubt, ONE is looking to boost the number of Japanese fighters on the roster now that they are holding shows in the country. In UFC news Thai woman's fighter Loma Lookboonmee has a new opponent for her fight at UFC Auckland on February 23rd as Angela Hill steps in to replace Hannah Goldy. Pancrase strawweight champions Daichi Kitakata has broken his hand in training and will not be able to defend the strap at Pancrase 313, Adam Antolin. No word on when the fight might be rescheduled. In other news, Korean promotion TFC has postponed its March 14th card due to the Coronavirus Outbreak, no news on a new date at this time. However, this weekend in Thailand UFC Vet and the hardest working fighter in Asian MMA Will Choppe will host Thailand Fighting Championship 4 in Phuket. Certainly a show worth checking out. And that is all I have for you guys today. To stay up to date with all things Asian MMA Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Sticher, YouTube and Facebook. I’ll have all the links in the show notes. Check it out. Follow Asian MMA Podcast Everywhere: Facebook:

On this episode of the Asian MMA Podcast I team up with JHK of Kumite Radio to go over everything that went down in Asian MMA this past year, and oh what a year it's been. We talk about RIZIN, ONE Championship, ROAD FC, Full Metal Dojo, TFC, OWS, Tiger Muay Thai, Battlefield FC, Korean MMA, Japan MMA and oh so much more. Follow Asian MMA Podcast Everywhere: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianMMAPodcast YouTube: http://bit.ly/AsianMMA_YouTube Twitter: https://twitter.com/AsianMMAPodcast iTunes: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_iTunes GooglePlay: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_GooglePlay Spotify: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_Spotify Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/asian-mma-podcast Website: http://www.AsianMMAPodcast.com

ONE Championship Dawn of Heroes recap, Pancrase 305 bouts added and Battlefield FC Update - Asian MMA Podcast Over the weekend we had ONE Championship back in action in Manila. But before we get into that we have an update on the Battlefield FC event I talked about last week. Several outlets are reporting that all fighters have been paid. That’s a move in the right direction, but it’s still going to be difficult for anyone to trust them going forward, two events and two PR nightmares. Good sirs, might I suggest you move onto a different venture at this time? There are two interesting matchups added to Pancrase 308 in September. Edna Oliveira will be stepping in to replace Nori Date against Emi Fujino in the strawweight Grand Prix semifinal. We will also see UFC vet Issei Tamura try to get back in the win column against Katshshi Sugiyama who is on a two-fight win streak. Both interesting fights I am excited to see. I am an old, old school Pancrase fan so I always get excited for their events Moving on to ONE Championships Dawn of Heros that went down in Manila over the weekend. This was a good event, the card was stacked and it was headlined by two title fights. The very first fight on the card was one I was excited for because we had Muhammad Aiman taking on Sunoto. I’ve been following Aiman since his amateur days in MIMMA. Aiman looked fantastic against Sunoto, I had him winning every round easily and he just looked fantastically dominate. Aiman is just 24 years old, he’s got 9 pro fights under his belt and he keeps looking better and better. I am excited to see how he develops over the next few years. My only criticism against Aiman at this point is that since he turned pro he hasn’t been finishing a lot of his opponents as he did as an amateur. I would like to see him get back to the high finish rate he had in MIMMA where all but one of his wins was a finish. On this card we also saw Yushin Okami in his second outing with ONE Championship, unfortunately for him, it was another unsuccessful attempt as he dropped a decision to a very game, very tough James Nakashima. This was pretty much a one-sided fight, Nakashima controlled it from start to finish. Here’s one of those little quirks you see in ONE Championship. In the first round, Nakashima had Okami in a choke, that definitely wasn’t the best position, but he didn’t look like he was close to taping, but a lot of times in ONE when fighters are in bad positions similar to this, This particular ref will stand over the fighter and yell at him to give up. It’s strange to me because I can’t remember any other ref doing that and to me, it seems like the most inappropriate way to give instructions to a fighter during a fight. Especially when they're in a bad position. Moving up to the main card we had Demetrious Johnson take home a decision win over Tatsumitsu Wada. To me, this fight was a lot closer than it probably should have been. Hats off to Wa

Will Chope Interview - The Most Active Fighter in Asian MMA Will recently had a dust-up on social media with the CEO of ONE Championship, Chatri Sityodtong over a post WIll penned about the lack of drug testing in Asian MMA and his opinions on ONEs policies. Chatri would go on to say he agreed with most of what Will said in his post right before sending his staff out to get wills contact info and having ONEs corporate lawyer send a letter threating to sue him if he didn’t take the post down. You can follow Will Chope here: https://www.facebook.com/Lanky.Madness/ https://www.instagram.com/asiawillthekill/ https://twitter.com/AsiaWillTheKill To stay up to date with all things Asian MMA Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Sticher, YouTube and Facebook. I’ll have all the links in the show notes. Check it out. Follow Asian MMA Podcast Everywhere: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianMMAPodcast YouTube: http://bit.ly/AsianMMA_YouTube Twitter: https://twitter.com/AsianMMAPodcast iTunes: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_iTunes GooglePlay: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_GooglePlay Spotify: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_Spotify Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/asian-mma-podcast Website: http://www.AsianMMAPodcast.com Host: dana blouin Producer: Emily Barner Executive Producer: dana blouin

RIZIN 17 Results, Battlefield FC 2, ONE Championship and WADA Before I get into Battlefield FC, and believe me that is going to be a big part of what we talk about today. Before that, though I want to talk about RIZIN 17! Oh man was that a hell of a card. I love what RIZIN is doing and the approach they take to the sport. Some great Asian MMA matchups going on over there, This was a big card, I want to talk about a few of the fights. One of the womens fights early in the card which all of a sudden has implications for the regional scene was ROAD FC Champ Seo Hee Ham in her debut absolutely destroying Tomo Maesawa with brutal knees in the first round. After the win she called out Miyuu Yamamoto, they had a little moment in the ring and that fight looks to be official for RIZIN 19 as a title eliminator. In other woman's action on the card, Stephanie Egger came away with a Unanimous Decision win over King Reina. We also saw Jake Huen get the win over Vitaly Shemetov due to a cut in the 3rd round. Undefeated Russian Ivan Shtyrkov put everyone in his division on notice with a brutal second-round TKO finish of Hook Kim And in the main event, we had an absolute war between Mikuru Asakura and Yusuke Yachi that saw Asakura walk away with a unanimous decision. Before I get into the absolute shit show that was Battleground FC 2. Just a quick update on the whole ONE Championship and WADA testing situation. I know a lot of you might be aware of the defamation letter that ONE sent to Thailand based UFC vet Will Chope after he posted about ONEs testing policies and even after the ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong replied to his post saying he agreed with a lot of what he said. I’ll actually be interviewing Will soon, that should be the next episode that drops later this week. So we will dive into all of that. But one of the interesting things that came out of all of this was that WADA pretty much came out and said they are not working with ONE in any way, and just using WADA labs does not mean you are doing WADA testing. It’s another really interesting development in the whole Asian MMA drug testing saga. Personally, in my opinion, I think ONE should have never brought it up. It was pretty much a well-known secret that a lot of fighters in Asia, in just about every promotion are on some type of PED and promoters don’t test for it. It’s not a ONE issues, it’s a sport issue. But if you don’t talk about it then no one really cares. Look, I’m not sure I’m on the right side of this argument, I know a lot of people disagree with me, but that’s where I stand. Ok, Let’s get into Battleground FC 2 and the absolute shitshow that it was. Or is turning out to be. The story is still developing. I am also going to be linking in the show notes to articles from Bodylock MMA because they have done a fantastic job of covering it. So some of you guys might remember Battleground FC 1 that took place in Korea back in 2017. It had a pretty good lineup, much like Battleground FC 2 did, but was plag

We start this recap in Japan which will be the same place we finish it with Pancrase 305, and then we have some interesting news bits to cover from Rizin and Deep Jewels. Pancrase 305 was a really good card, I’ve been watching Pancrase since back in the day so I really enjoy their shows on a nostalgia level. I’m going to put the full results up at AsianMMAPodcast.com so you can check that out there. First I want to talk about the main event where we saw Isao Kobayashi unify the featherweight strap against a game intern champ Nazareno Malegarie. This was a 5 round banger that had me on the edge of my seat. I had both men winning two rounds going into the 5th This is where Kobayashi turned it up and put on a pressure to win the round and secure the victory to unify the belts. Talk about a fight to cap off a great card, this was it, this was the fight you wanted to have. The back and forth, the drama, the story that emerged. This is what fighting should be. The other fight on this card that really stood out to me was between two legends of the game, Yuki Kondo and Akihiro Gono. Both have careers spanning back to the 1990s and have fought in the biggest organizations in the world, UFC, Pride, Shooto, Deep, K1 and of course Pancrase. Just what an epic match to have on the card. This one went all three rounds and saw Kondo take the unanimous decision win. And it was the pressure and work rate from Kondo that made the difference in this fight. Fantastic fight, if you haven’t seen it, go watch it. Moving on This coming weekend we have RIZIN 16, which looks to be an awesome card. For sure I’ll be covering that in next weeks weekend update. But they also announced that RIZIN fighter Rena Kubota will be facing Lindsey VanZandt at Bellator 222 June 14th at MSG. This will be Rena’s first time fighting outside of Japan, so it will be interesting to see how she does. That time shift can be difficult going in both directions. But hopefully, that won’t be a factor. In other news from Japan, we now know that UFC, Rizin and Pancrase veteran Rin Nakai will return after more than a year away from the sport at Deep Jewels 24 on June 9th. Her opponent will be 0-2 Thai fighter Kaew Prachumwong. Both of her previous fights have been in Bangkok based promotion Full Metal Dojo, Here’s and odd fact, I reffed her last fight back in 2017 which was a losing bid against Cambodian fighter Tharoth Sam. I hate to say she’s just being fed to Rin as a tune-up, but that’s sort of how it seems. To stay up to date with all things Asian MMA Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Sticher, YouTube, and Facebook. I’ll have all the links in the show notes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Follow Asian MMA Podcast Ever

Today we are talking about the odd occurrence of so many fighters from big gyms outside of Asia are repping Evolve MMA when they fight in ONE Championship. For those of you who don’t know Evolve MMA is a Singapore based gym founded and owned by Chatri Sityodtong. Just in case you don’t know, that happens to be the same Chatri Sityodtong that is the founder, chairman, and CEO of ONE Championship. Blaring conflict of interest aside, given the size of Evolve and its location in Singapore giving it proximity to ONEs HQ, it would make sense that we would see a lot of fighters from their stable in the promotion. Then we take into account that the promotion and the gym have the same owner, again, conflict of interest aside, and of course, we realize it becomes more commonplace to see Evolve fighters on the roster. And surely we are not surprised if we see many of them moved up the ranks and getting title shots or favorable matchmaking. All of that, under the veil of Asian MMA you can sort of understand. But what really gets me, what really makes me scratch my head is why so many fighters who come over from prominent gyms outside Asia come into ONE Championship and rep Evolve alongside their own gym. Just in recent history, we have seen this with Ben Askren who repped Rufusport and Evolve, We saw this with Demtrious Johnson who repped AMC Pankration and Evolve, Garry Tonon repped Renzo Gracie and Evolve and most recently Sage Northcut who repped Alpha Male and Evolve, and even walked out in an Evolve T-Shirt. And of course, two of the fighter the promotion pushes more than anyone else Angela Lee and Christian Lee, both of whom fight out of United MMA and Evolve MMA. All of this really raises some questions for me, I have to wonder what the motivating factors are for a fighter to come out repping a gym that is not theirs. Is this more of a sponsorship that is giving some fighters extra money to just toss the name of the gym out there, sort of like how it worked with Gary Goodridge being paid to rep “Kuk Sool Won” at UFC 8 It’s all such a shmooze, A lot of this comes back to that full blown lack of transparency that ONE is so famous for. To anyone who has followed the sport for any amount of time, this whole dual gym thing would be strange, and even more so when you realize that the gym and promotion have the same owner. Of course, any reasoning I come up with is pure speculation, but I’m a speculating man so I’ll have a theoretical go at it. At first, I thought it might be part of the cost of entry for well-known fighters looking for another run in a big organization. But the numbers for that don’t add up as there are some notable names who have not done the whole dual gym thing, Yushin Okami and Eddie Alveraze to name a few. That leads me to think that it’s much closer to the whole sponsorship idea, that Evolve MMA wants to have high caliber fighters under their banner and if they can leverage contracts with ONE Championship to make that more possible then it’s certainly an easier way to go about it than developing championship fighter

Asian MMA Podcast weekend update for May 17tth -19th of 2019 ONE Championship Enter the Dragon and ROAD FC 53 This is your Asian MMA weekend update for May 17tth -19th of 2019 We had two massive events this weekend with ONE Championships Enter The Dragon in Singapore and ROAD FC 53 capping off their lightweight tournament and awarding the million dollar prize. And Don’t forget to subscribe to the Asian MMA Podcast so you don’t miss out any Asian MMA Goodness. Let’s start things off in Singapore with ONE Championship, which put together an amazing card. And before I get into the fights from that night, I want to highlight Michael Schiavello calling the fight cage side for injecting some of the best Game of Thrones references and just slipping them in at the perfect time. It really added some fun audible moments. For some reason, Mei Yamaguchi vs Laura Balin was on the prelims, Yamaguchi came out strong and made quick work of Balin with an armbar finish at 3:45 of the first round. I love watching Mei fight, I think she is one of the most talented women on the ONE roster. Her fighting on the prelims is really a crime. We also had Garry Tonon back in action against Yoshiki Nakahara. Tonon is an absolute beast! He came out strong like we have seen him do in every fight, and he dove for a heel hook and had it locked up and Nakahara tapping in less than a minute. Tonon is just unstoppable right now and making short work of people. Kicking off the main card we had Miao Li Tao get a highlight real finish over former ONE Strawweight Champ DSA. It was a nasty KO. DSA just wasn't getting his hands up and Tao saw that opportunity and put him to sleep. In other action, we had Dagi make short work of Amir Khan who got a second shot at moving ahead in the lighweight grand prix, but Dagi had his number and his striking was just too much and too powerful for Khan as a series of uppercuts and hooks crumpled Khan against the ropes The first of the two fights we absolutely have to talk about is Sage Northcut making his debut against Cosmo Alexandre. Before I get into the craziness of this fight, did anyone else notice that ONE announced Sage as a 77-time world Karate Champion? Despite the fact that he is 23 making that seems a bit difficult. I went and looked this up anyway and it turns out they were referring to the youth championships he has won in Karate. I’ve got to give ONE a yellow card for that attempt at subterfuge. On to the fight. Sweet Mother of Science, I did not expect it to go down like this. For some reason, Sage thought it was a good idea to stand with Cosmo, a multi-time Muay Thai and kickboxing champion. This is a guy who has shared the stage with some of the greatest fighters of this generation, he has wins over John Wayne Parr and Mark Holst. Cosmo had not fought MMA in almost 3 years but has been active in kickboxing and Muay Thai in that time so one would think that Sage would have had a better game plan then to stand with a killer. Well, it only took 29 seconds for Cosmo to absolutely crush Sage with a single punch, causing 8 fractures in his face in the process resulting in Sage needing a 9-hour sur

Thoughts on ONE Championship’s Agent Certification Program - Asian MMA Podcast Episode 24 This whole announcement was def a head-scratcher for a lot of people. It came just a week after ONE made a big splash by announcing their new production studio that will create movies and shows for digital distribution. On the surface, the underpinnings of the certification program seem reasonable for the most part. But the very first point causes pause… Currently a resident in Asia for at least one (1) year No prior criminal record No history or current ongoing matters of legal or lawsuit activity with any athlete A minimum of 10 years of related experience in the martial arts industry Must possess a College or University Degree Now Chatri would go on to explain in some social media posts that lacked any significant details that this program was being put into place because of some issues several fighters have gone through recently and that exceptions to the criteria could be made on a case by case basis. I came across an article from Low Kick MMA of comments from Chatri that goes into a bit more depth about the stated motivations for the certification program and ONEs willingness to make exceptions to the criteria, I’ll have that linked below in the show notes. Again, on the surface, this all looks like it is being put in place for the benefit of the fighters, and if that is the case then the motivation is great, but it raises some serious questions. One of the comments in the low kick article that I want to quote here because it throws up some red flags for me is. “We started with Asia, because if there is an unethical agent it’s very easy for us in Asia to seek justice because we have strong government and business relationships all over the continent,” Again, even if this is motivated with the best of intentions that quote alone sounds a bit thuggish. I think it would come as a surprise to no one to know that the type of behavior that Chatri talks about does exist, there are a lot of stories, especially in Asia of agents and managers taking horrible advantage of fighters, but there are also the same stories with regards to promotions. It cuts both ways. The biggest issue that comes from all of this is, at least in my opinion is that ONE now has a great deal of control and influence over the fighters and the way they do business, both in and out of the organization. And a clear lack of oversights and transparency just makes the waters more turbulent. There was a fantastic article by MMA Journalist Anthony Walker that was published on Sherdog where he dives into this even further and highlights some of the big conflicts of interest with the whole program. I’m going to link to his article and his twitter account down in the show notes, def check it out and follow him on Twitter he shares a lot of great MMA Content. Anthony points out in his article that US sports organizations like the NFL, NBA, MLB all have some type of agent certifications program, but those standards are not set by the league themselves, they are set by the players association to ensure that it is in the best interest of the players, not the organizations. Something like a players organization is clearly missing from the equation in MMA and is even further from reality in Asian MMA. That doesn’t mean that a promotion should step in and enforce such standards, it’s clearly a conflict of interest and the overwhelming lack of transparency in the way ONE operates makes it that much more concerning. I recently spoke with several ONE fighters who told me their contracts require them to promote the sponsors of ONE Championship without any further compensation, that in itself if it’s true, would se

Asian MMA Weekend Recap for May 10-12 2019 - Asian MMA podcast Episode 23 There was a fair amount of action going on this weekend in Asian MMA focused around Thailand and Japan. We likely won’t see anything from Malaysia or Indonesia for a month due to Ramadan being in full swing and both of those being Muslim majority countries so just about everyone from there is fasting. Let’s start off in Japan where we had DEEP 89 Impact go down, This was a fun card that saw Satoshi Yamasu overcome early adversity to stop Daiki Hata and retain his DEEP Featherweight belt. Hata came out strong, and was pressuring Yamasu throughout the first and had him in some serious trouble towards the end of the round.   When they came out in the second Hata looked to pick up where he left off but a hook from Yamasu floored Hata. Yamasu then jumped on his back and put the challenger away with some ground and pound. Another interesting fight on this card saw Trevin Jones from Guam take home a second-round submission win via RNC against  Takafumi Otsuka. In other news, this weekend, ROAD FC, World Series of Fighting and TUF veteran Jake Huen signed a multi-fight deal with Rizin. I think that Rizin is a great fit for him given his style and that he’s a big dude, I am excited to see what matchups they put him in. Next, we jump to Bangkok, where ONE Championship held their Warriors of Light card. This was a very Muay Thai heavy card, and I did a full review in the previous episode with Leon Jennings from APMMA. Overall it was a really fun card, It was just really light on MMA. The MMA fight that stood out the most for me was Shoko Sato against Mark Fairtex Abelardo. Mark has been on an absolute tear recently but Sato just looked amazing, he controlled the range and timing of the fight masterfully and at times it seemed like Mark was just swinging at air. Sato was able to pick Mark apart throughout the first round before getting the TKO stoppage in the second. This was one stoppage I thought was offensively early. You could even see Mark arguing with the ref right as it was stopped. Despite the very questionable stoppage, I was just incredibly impressed with Sato’s performance and I will be excited to see what ONE has in store for him next. Another fantastic fight on the card was Pongsiri vs Robin Catalan. Pongsiri just showed amazing standup but also a much improved, well-rounded skill set. But it was his dominance in the clinch and devastating knees that put and end to Robin Catalans night with knees to the body. The fight I was very excited for on the card ended up having an anticlimactic ending, that was Kazuki Tokudome squaring off with Adrian Pang. Pang who is generally an aggressive beast in the cage just seemed as though he wasn't able to turn it on as he was getting picked apart by Kazuki, who opened up a gash on his forehead. The ref called a pause in the action to have the doctor check the cut and that was the end, it got waved off. A very anti-climatic ending to what could have been an amazing fight. What did you guys think of the fights this weekend? What w

Asian MMA Weekend Recap May 3-5 2019 - Asian MMA Podcast Episode 20    Before we get right into the fight action from the weekend, I’ve got to give a shout out to two fighters who have cut their teeth in the Asian MMA scene over the years and have been making some serious moves as of late. First up a big shot out to Cole Smith who made a successful UFC Debut over the weekend. The Cole Train spent a lot of time training up in Chiangmai Thailand with Team Quest Thailand, under the tutelage of Dylan Fussell. Cole cut his teeth in the Bangkok based promotion Full Metal Dojo, having an amateur fight under their banner, and making his pro debut with Thailand Ring Wars back in 2016. This isn’t on Coles record, but if my memory serves me correctly I saw Cole fight in a very underground promotion out in Pathum Thani, Thailand called Ring Wars, this was pure grit, they set up mats in a parking garage, slapped some cage around it and held a one-day tournament. Amature, pro, it didn’t matter. You just showed up and banged. The second shout out is to another FMD Alumn and Rizin Heavyweight Grand Prix finalist Amir Aliakbari who signed with the UFC over the weekend! Amir is an Iranian beast who other than his only loss to the legend of CroCop has smashed everyone else he has faced, having gone the distance just once in his 10-1 career. He was basically the most feared heavyweight in Asian MMA for a long time, Also happens to be one of the nicest dudes in the game. He was training out of AKA Thailand with Mike Swick for a while, I’m not sure if that is still the case, I have heard conflicting reports, and have not had that confirmed by Amir as of yet. It looks like he will be making his UFC debut on their upcoming Abu Dhabi show in September, no opponent has been announced, but I am looking forward to that one for sure. One thing that has to be pointed out regarding Amir is that he has a lifetime band from wrestling due to a positive PED test. Of course, we all assume that fighting for Rizin and ACB these types of things are not an issue, but signing with the UFC means he will have to enter their USADA testing pool. My hope is that this won’t impact his ability to compete in the UFC, but only time will tell. But my fingers are crossed. On to this weekends events. The first one is the IMMAF Asian Open Championships held right here in Bangkok. Now Bangkok was a last minute replacement location for the championships. They were supposed to be held in China, but there were some administrative difficulties so the Thailand branch of IMMAF stepped up and organized the tournament on about two months notice. The event went really well. It was held right in the middle of the city, so it was easy to get to. And they put on three days of amazing fights. The tournament was full representative of the Asian members of IMMAF, but what we saw when you look at the results were that for the most part Kazakhstan and Bahrain pretty much dominated every single division. Of the 15 divisions, just 3 were won by fighters from other countries, and of the 15 division, Kazakhstan won 7 of them. There is something special in the water there. Clearly, the wrestling base played a very big role in the Kazak teams success, as did their overall conditioning.

Enson Inoue Discusses the State of Asian MMA - Asian MMA Podcast Episode 16 MMA Legend Enson Inoue sits down with Asian MMA Podcast Host dana blouin to talk about Rizin, ONE Championship Shooto and the state of Asian MMA. We talk about the recent ONE Championship event in Japan and how the events team gave him free tickets for the worst seat in the house and the founder of Shooto saved the day.  Follow Enson Inoue:  https://www.facebook.com/Enson-Inoue-178254262213276/  https://www.instagram.com/ensoninoue/  Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, YouTube and Facebook. I’ll have all the links in the show notes. Check it out. Follow Asian MMA Podcast Everywhere: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianMMAPodcast  YouTube: http://bit.ly/AsianMMA_YouTube  Twitter: https://twitter.com/AsianMMAPodcast  iTunes: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_iTunes  GooglePlay: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_GooglePlay  Spotify: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_Spotify  Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/asian-mma-podcast  Website: http://www.AsianMMAPodcast.com 

ONE Champions Ship A New Era Recap - Asian MMA Podcast Ep 15 This week I recap all the happenings of ONE Championship A New Era, their first ever event in Japan, and to be honest it really did feel like a new era on their part. It felt like we are seeing the second coming of Asian MMA, and it was awesome. The event saw the previously unstoppable Angela Lee get her first lost via TKO against a very game Xion Jing Nan, who put Angela Lee away with body shots in the 5th and final round after surviving a brutal armbar in the 4th. Former UFC champion and pound-for-pound great Demetrious Johnson had a harder time than expected with Yuya Wakamatsu, but did get the submission victory. Probably the biggest shock of the night was that former UFC champ Eddie Alvarez lost his one championship debut against a very tough Timofey Nastyukhin who put the former UFC champ away in the first round. Of course there was the controversy in the DQ finish in the Bibiano Fernandes vs Kevin Belingon fight giving Bibiano the win and making him the new champion. After Aung La Nsang made quick work of Ken Haegawa former UFC fighter and current ONE championship Heavyweight champion entered the cage to issue a challenge for Aung Las light heavyweight strap, which is quickly accepted. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, YouTube and Facebook. I’ll have all the links in the show notes. Check it out. Follow Asian MMA Podcast Everywhere: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianMMAPodcast YouTube: http://bit.ly/AsianMMA_YouTube Twitter: https://twitter.com/AsianMMAPodcast iTunes: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_iTunes GooglePlay: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_GooglePlay Spotify: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_Spotify Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/asia... Website: http://www.AsianMMAPodcast.com

I’m dana blouin and today we are talking about The debuts of Mighty Mouse and The Underground King in ONE Championship. By now just about everyone knows that ONE Championship has announced the first matchups for Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alverez which are both slated to fight on their first ever show in Japan, entitled “A New Era” on March 31st next year. Which was already a stacked card before they added DJ and Eddie to it. Let’s kick it off with Eddie Alvarez whos last fight had him suffer a KO defeat to Dustin Poirier and he’s only tasted victory in a single outing in his last four fights. That being said he is a former UFC champ and has been fighting exceptional talent for years. His first opponent in ONE will be 12 and 4  Timofey Nastyukhin, who is coming off a first-round KO loss to Saygid Arsianaliev earlier this year. I wouldn’t call Timofey a top tier fighter just yet in his career, he has notable wins over Rob Lisita and Eduard Folayng, but he hasn’t put together a body of work that would make me think he is ready for Eddie Alvarez at this juncture. That doesn’t mean he’s hands down outmatched here, he’s at a point where this could be the win that shoots him into that top tier. He’s got all the tools, we just need to see if he can execute against someone of Eddie's caliper. We’ll find out in March. Now, that brings us to DJ. And this is where we have to jump into a much more detailed conversation. Now Demetrious Johnson might be coming off a loss to Henry Cejudo, But he is still considered by many, myself included, to be one of the greatest fighters to ever strap on 4oz gloves. The things he accomplished at 125lbs in the UFC, against the best in the sport are amazing. So no matter who he faces first it’s going to seem like an unfair fight. But when I see he is facing 10 and 3 Pancrase veteran Yuya Wakamatsu I have to scratch my head. I understand that ONE probably doesn’t want DJ to jump right into the title picture, but he has to be in that top tier right off the bat. I was a bit surprised that he wasn’t matched with Danny Kingad who actually handed Wakamatsu his most recent loss. Or the fight I really want to see would be against former Flyweight champ Karait Akhmetov. Who is an absolute beast. Now that is the fight I think everyone who follows Asian MMA wants to see in ONE Championship. Unfortunately, I have to bring this up, but one of the things that will always be a concern with DJ fighting in ONE Championship until it’s addressed is that his coach, Matt Hume is also the matchmaker and VP of Operations for ONE Championship, that is a clear conflict of interest. I’ve yet to hear anything form ONE on if they will be putting a system in place to ensure that Matt Hume isn’t involved in any of DJs matchmaking or any other aspect of his fights, and I reached out to ask that question to several people at ONE and they basically told me it’s not something they are addressing at this point. To be clear, I’ve never observed anything from Matt Hume that would make me think there is something underhanded going on or that there would be. The few times I’ve met him he’s been great, and all the people I know who work with him on a regular basis at ONE have nothing but positive things to say about him. But that conflict of interest is still a reality that ONE

New Years MMA Recap Rizin 14 and ONE Championship - Asian MMA Podcast Episode 12 This episode is brought to you by New Year's resolutions you have no intention of keeping.   I am sure a lot of you know that New Year MMA is a sort of tradition in Asia going back to the Pride days, and it seems that RIzin has picked up that mantle. And while we didn’t have any fight action from ONE Championship we did get some interesting news from them that we’ll get into a bit later. First things first we have to talk about Rizin 14 and Floyd Mayweather and his “fight”, or as I have taken to calling it, drive by worth 9 million dollars. He finished. Tenshin in the first round after three knockdowns the corner threw in the towel. I’m not sure how much of a fight this actually was, I don’t want to say it was a work, but it was fairly suspect… I’m just saying. If, and this is a big if it wasn’t a work. Floyd Mayweather was bigger, more experienced and fighting under a ruleset he was comfortable with. Tenshin wasn’t able to utilize the kicks he’s known for and Floyd was never in trouble. Other fights worth mentioning on the card: Kyoji Horiguchi claimed the first ever Rizin bantamweight championship by choking out Bellator champ Darrion Caldwell in the 3rd round. Former Invicta FC champion Ayaka Hamasaki defeated Kanna Asakura to claim the Rizin women’s super-atomweight title, via second-round armbar. Openweight woman's fighter Gabi Garcia tapped out Barbara Nepomuceno with a first-round Americana. These are both big women, but Gabi was still a full 10kg heavier than Barbara, But at the end of the day this is the type of fight you expect in Japan, I guess I’m just happy that there is a platform for this type of freakshow fight still. What is hands down one of the nastiest eye injuries I have ever seen Yusuke Yachi got a nasty cut to the right eye that ended his fight with UFC vet Johnny Case, google this, it’s just crazy. In ONE Championship news over the holiday break, they announced that they have inked a broadcast deal with TV Tokyo for weekly content, both live and recorded that will have them on free TV analog and digital as well as their cable platform. This is the second major broadcast deal we have seen ONE sign to round out the year. This is a major win for ONE who I know sees Japan as a key market in their plans for global domination. Of course, they are going to Japan with their first event there next march in a stacked card that not only has three titles on the line but also the debut of DJ and Eddie Alverez, But I’ll talk more about that in the next episode. Chatri Sityodtong also announced that ONE Championship will have a crazy schedule with 45 events in 2019, it will break down like this -24 ONE Championship events -12 ONE Hero Series events -6 ONE Warrior Series events-3 ONE Esports events That is an insane schedule, That is great for me though, ton’s of Asian MMA to cover! In other news, I am now contributing to the rankings discussion at Asian Persuasion MMA, you c

In this episode, my good friend Randall (@rj__vapes on IG& YT), a Dana White employed MMA fighter on a smaller circuit, teams up with me for a discussion of all things fighting- including recent events in the boxing world, upcoming events in the Asian MMA world, and the final UFC event of 2018, #UFC232. And even though he couldn't physically be there, our pal TJ (@golfteevapes on IG & YT) sends us his predictions for the topics we discussed, so we still got his unique perspective on the topics at-hand. Tune in to see what we thought was going to happen, and let me know what you think of our guesses & ramblings. The video version is broadcast live Thursday nights around 9:30PMish CST and then available to watch on the #ImNoJoe YouTube channel. Follow me over on IG: https://www.instagram.com/imnojoepodcast/ Or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ImNoJoe Or YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPNQLdrgZylH5PEkO6MrGkw Or Mixer: Mixer: http://mixer.com/TheMeterDoesThings And catch my Recap show, #WhatDIDiSay over on Mixer live Sundays and then on the YouTube channel Tuesday afternoons. You can also join the Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/TheMeterDoesManyThings OR you can donate directly here: https://PayPal.Me/TheMeterDoesThings PLEASE know that any and all donations are non-refundable, so make sure it's what you want to do before you click Send. That being said, I appreciate each and everyone who supports the me in ANY way, be it sharing a stream or donating, or even just hanging out in chat. Thank you to each and everyone who helps out. I appreciate you all. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/imnojoe/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/imnojoe/support

In this special holiday episode of the Asian MMA podcast, I sit down with Asian based fight photographer John Walsh. John Walsh is the co-founder of California based MMA news site The Clinch Report. While he started his career covering the talent-rich MMA scene of California, he moved to Asia a few years back to expand his horizons and quickly fell in love with the off the wall nature of the Asian MMA fight scene. John talks about some of the odder events he has shot, the amazing talent he has come across in the region and how some of the more outlandish things he has photographed have far surpassed any expectations he had. We talk about everything from MMA to Muay Thai, Kickboxing, Boxing and even armature wrestling. To stay up to date with all things Asian MMA Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, YouTube and Facebook. I’ll have all the links in the show notes. Check it out. Check out Johns Work: https://theclinchreport.com/  https://www.facebook.com/TheClinchReport/  https://www.instagram.com/clinchpikz/  https://www.instagram.com/theclinchreport/    Follow Asian MMA Podcast Everywhere: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianMMAPodcast YouTube: http://bit.ly/AsianMMA_YouTube Twitter: https://twitter.com/AsianMMAPodcast iTunes: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_iTunes GooglePlay: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_GooglePlay Spotify: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_Spotify Website: http://www.AsianMMAPodcast.com

Today we are revisiting the coverage of the ONE Championship TV deal in the US, specifically how it will impact the ONE app users in the states, Which is something that listener Kennedy Serafica asked me over on YouTube. I looked into this a bit more, and when Chatri was on Ariel Helwanis show he had indicated that the app would no longer be free in the US at some point next year. I reached out to some of my contacts at ONE to ask for clarification and it seems as though the app will no longer be available in the US after January 1st because Turner Broadcasting will have exclusive broadcast rights in US market. It will be interesting to see if ONE follows this same strategy with other western markets as they continue to negotiate TV deals. 2019 will most likely give us a better view of that. If you are a US user of the app, keep in mind that you have many mobile VPN options available to you… Just saying. In other news ROAD FC has confirmed that ROAD FC 52 on February 23rd of next year will be the finals of their $1 Million dollar lightweight tournament where Shamil Zavurov and Mansour Barnaoui will fight for a shot at reigning lightweight champ Kwon A-Sol and the US$1 million purse that is up for grabs. It’s been a great tournament and that cash prize at the level that ROAD FC is at for a promotion is fantastic. And that's the type of stuff that makes Asian MMA interesting, we have all this fringe stuff going on that you just wouldn’t see in something like the UFC or probably not even in Bellator.   And also soccer kicks and knees to the head… come one now. Lastly, for this episode ONEs first show of 2019 will see the return of one of my favorite fighters, Kotetsu Boku aka No Face as he takes one Bruno Pucci. He hasn’t fought since a brutal knockout by suplex at the hands of Christian Lee back in December of 2017 in Bangkok. I was cage side at that event and Christan slammed him one section of cage away from me and you could see Boku stiffen right up, at one point it looked like he was having a seizure. Even if you watch the video of that fight, ONE does a great job not to show the doctor attending to Boku but you can see everyone looking over at him. They took him out on a stretcher as a precaution, but he ended up being ok in the end. I saw him back at the fighter's hotel that same night. I am super excited to see him back in action, and I am really happy that he took this much time off before fighting again after a KO like that. I would love to see that be more of a norm for fighters. Follow Asian MMA Podcast Everywhere: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianMMAPodcast YouTube: http://bit.ly/AsianMMA_YouTube Twitter: https://twitter.com/AsianMMAPodcast iTunes: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_iTunes GooglePlay:

First things first, In big news that isn’t MMA related but is MMA related is that Muay Thai, the art of eight limbs has been granted provisional recognition as an Olympic sport. For me, this is both potentially good and bad. In Asian MMA Muay Thai is a very common base discipline for a lot of fighters, especially here in Thailand, so it’s exciting to see another avenue for fighters to develop through. That being said, anyone who has ever seen a single muay Thai match, knows it’s beautifully violent in a way that the Olympics isn’t. That bring up a lot of fear that the OIC might look to turn Muay Thai into something similar to TKD where fighters come out heavily padded and it becomes more of a points game instead of brutal leg kicks and flesh-slicing elbows. I personally like my Muay Thai primal and devastating, not Olympic TV friendly. Now since the last show ONE had two significant signings, or at least high profile. One being Sexyama and the other being Sage Northcutt. Akiyama makes a lot of sense for ONE, he is half Japanese half Korean, two markets that ONE would like to dominate and he has a fairly good record at 14 and 6 but has not fought since November of 2015. So by the time he steps in the ONE cage, we could be looking at 4 years away from the sport. He’s still a marketable guy and I think he will do well with ONE from more than a just fighting perspective. Sage Northcutt on the other hand. He has a good record at this point in his career at 11 and 2 with 8 fights in the UFC but He really doesn’t fit the whole “Asian superheroes” model that we here Chatri Sityodtong talking about. He is pretty much as white bread as they come, so I found that a bit odd. DJ and Eddie Alverez, I can actually see, but with Sage, I have a harder time getting behind the idea of him adding value to ONE. That being said, he has a look that will really stand out in Asia, and he has become well known in the states so that could be part of the big picture for ONE, we will have to wait and see how that goes. And to that point, ONE has inked a 3 year deal with TNT broadcasting in the states that will see ONE championship break into the US airwaves. Apparently, the deal will include 24 live events on Turner Sports digital platform B/R Live and TNT will air taped events as well as a possible reality show. The first live event will be ONEs January 19th event from Jakarta, Eternal Glory, where the strawweight strap will be on the line as Joshua Pacio defends against Hayato Suzuki. Over the weekend at ROAD FC 51 Ham Seo-Hee retained her woman's Atomweight strap against a game Park Jeong-Eun via UD This is ROADs last event for 2018, with all the changes afoot in the Asian MMA universe it will be interesting to see what they have in store for 2019.   Follow Asian MMA Podcast Everywhere: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianMMAPodcast YouTube: http://bit.ly/AsianMMA_YouTube Twitter: https://twi

Another edition of Mixed Combat Radio. Today’s topics include: Canelo Alvarez vs Gennady Golovkin for Cinco De Mayo? Looks like they have the T-Mobile Arena and GGG is in serious negotiations with DAZN. PBC lands another major network deal…this time in the UK with ITV. In the MMA world, ONE Championship lands their own massive network deal. A deal with Turner Media is in place that will bring the biggest Asian MMA promotion to TNT and other networks owned by the mega-media conglomerate. Plus other news in the combat sports world! Remember you can CALL IN! 323-870-4051 or email me if you are an international listener for a FREE and PERMANENT call-in link! Be sure to subscribe to the show on all our platforms to stay notified and up-to-date on show information. Hit that like button and share the show as much as possible! We are a fan driven platform and rely on you to spread the word and to tell a friend to tell a friend about #MCRPodcast! Email: MixedCombatRadio@gmail.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mixedcombatradio Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl4n809W07ioAxlOG0avLWw Twitter: https://twitter.com/MCRRadioShow Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mixedcombatradio/ SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/mixedcombatradio iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mixed-combat-radio/id1186994396?mt=2 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matthuntermcr/ Spreaker: https://www.spreaker.com/user/mixedcombatradio iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/mcr-podcast-29566304/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1AXxeNS6ekc9ENa68031AH?si=7-pfONH4QU6vhQiFGiORKw

ONE Championship Conquest of Champions, UFC Beijing, Crazy Max Muay Thai KO - Asian MMA Podcast Ep 8 This episode is brought to you by Heavyweight fights that don’t make it out of the first round because the last thing you want to see is big boys in minute 6 of a fight. I’m dana blouin and today we are talking about all the Asian MMA awesomeness that went down over the weekend and some to come. Earlier today I was on the Tiny Sumo daily drops on his IG channel talking about Asian MMA and everything going on in the scene. Be sure to check him out @Tiny_Sumo and I’ll have the full link below.  https://www.instagram.com/tiny_sumo/  I need to start out by highlighting ONE Championship Conquest of Champions that took place in Manila, Philippines over the weekend. This event saw Edward Folayang defeat Amir Khan via unanimous decision to reclaim the lightweight championship. That is going to make things interesting with Eddie Alverez joining the ONE Championship roster and the upcoming Grand Prix. The main event of the same card saw ONE Championship Heavyweight champion Brandon Vera make quick work of Mauro Cerilli to retain the strap after two years away from the cage. In other news on that card Bangkok based fighter, Rockie Bactol was dealt his first loss against Akihiro Fujisawa being stopped with elbows in round 3. Rockie came up through the amateur circuits around Asia and was recently part of the ONE Warrior Series. While this is clearly a setback for Rockie, I am sure he will bounce back and be better than ever. On a side note to this ONE Championship event, I want to point out that while I was slacking off for Thanksgiving Anthony Engelen won back to back fights a week apart on short notice both times. Fist with a first round KO against an always game Meas Meul out of Cambodia, and the very next week a first round sub against Jimmy Yabo. Anthony is a fighter's fighter who is always willing to step up. That's why we love to watch him work. Next up we switch it up to UFC Beijing which took place over the weekend and was headlined by a heavyweight clash between Francis Ngannou and Curtis Blaydes, which saw Ngannou get back in the win column with a 45 second TKO victory over Blaydes. The co-main for the card was long time Asian MMA standout Alistair Overeem against Sergey Pavlovich which saw The Reem force a stoppage towards the end of round 1 with some very nasty ground and pound. Also on this card, we had woman’s strawweight standout Zhang Weili, who has been on an 18 fight win streak with 16 finishes stop Jessica Aguilar with an armbar in the first round… Take notice women’s strawweight. In non-MMA news, there was an interesting result in Max Muay Thai that saw fighter Gou Dakui knock out both his opponent and the ref. You can check that out here. https://www.facebook.com/thefightnation/videos/878739992333257/  Next weekend Lions Head Boxing Gym in Bangkok will be playing host to AMC Fight Night. They will have both pro and amateur boxing, kickboxing and MMA on the card. We are going to get to see Mostafa Ibrahim Radi make his pro-MMA debut at this event. He has a deep amateur record from Malaysia so I am going to be excited to see him stepping up to the pros. It looks like we also have Greg McGanja Edwards on the card who is based out of Team Quest Thailand up in Chaingmai. He is always game and comes to bang. But the real gem on this card is the main who comes right out of the Street Fighter video game, Stan Tskitishvili vs the local Bangkok legend Tangmo! I’ve talked about Stan on other episodes, he looked crisp at the last FMD and Tangmo is the guy who will take any fight and always has a punchers chance. This event is just 500 baht per head, so if you are in Ba

This is Thanksgiving week and I am taking things easy, so I just wanted to talk about something I am really grateful for and that is the rise of Amature MMA in Asia. For people who compete exclusively on the Asian MMA stage, there isn't really a depth of promotions for young fighters to get experience on early on. And really, until a few years ago we were not seeing many professionally run amateur MMA events in Southeast Asia. I can recall a few that were nothing more than guys showing up to fight in a parking garage at a university with no medical staff and several fights that were clear works. And while some of those are still around, they are not the norm, events Like Kuala Lumpur based MIMMA and Bangkok Based OneShin Cup has really raised the bar for amateur MMA and given Asian MMA the grassroots it needs to develop new fighters and really grow, especially in Southeast Asia. I’ve even talked about in the past well-established pro promotions filling their undercard with amateur fights because the talent pool is deep there at the lower weight classes and they make exciting fights. For their part IMMAF has played a bit role in this, the president of IMMAF Kerith Brown is a common sight at Asian MMA events and he is a powerful voice in the amateur regulation and the move to get MMA into the Olympics. A lot of the push forward with the amateur scene in Southeast Asia has been due to him working so closely with the governing bodies as well as To stay up to date with all things Asian MMA Follow Asian MMA Podcast Everywhere: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianMMAPodcast YouTube: http://bit.ly/AsianMMA_YouTube Twitter: https://twitter.com/AsianMMAPodcast iTunes: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_iTunes GooglePlay: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_GooglePlay Spotify: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_Spotify Website: http://www.AsianMMAPodcast.com

This episode of the Asian MMA Podcast is something different. For the first time ever I have a guest join me in the studio. I sit down with one of the most exciting fighters in Asian MMA, Bangkok based Asian MMA fighter, Javier Trujillo. we discuss his career as a fighter in the Asian MMA scene, his goals to sign with a larger organization like Rizin FF, Road FC or ONE Championship.  Javier and I also get into his background in American Folkstyle Wrestling and his early training in catch wrestling and why 10th Planet BJJ was the perfect fit for his style. We also step back and get into his background as a California firefighter and an Oregon Fire Fighter and the choice he went through to leave that career behind and pursue MMA full time in Asia.  Javier Trujillo is one fighter in the Asian MMA scene you need to be following. his fights are always exciting and there are big things ahead for him. Follow Asian MMA Podcast Everywhere: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianMMAPodcast YouTube: http://bit.ly/AsianMMA_YouTube Twitter: https://twitter.com/AsianMMAPodcast iTunes: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_iTunes GooglePlay: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_GooglePlay Spotify: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_Spotify Website: http://www.AsianMMAPodcast.com  Check our Javier's 5 second knockout at Full Metal Dojo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG4AkLkiyAI 

Follow Asian MMA Podcast Everywhere: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianMMAPodcast  YouTube: http://bit.ly/AsianMMA_YouTube  Twitter: https://twitter.com/AsianMMAPodcast  iTunes: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_iTunes GooglePlay: http://bit.ly/AsianMMAPodcast_GooglePlay  Website: http://www.AsianMMAPodcast.com    Right off the bat the biggest story in Asian MMA this week is Floyd Money Mayweather fighting in Rizin FF against Kickboxing champion Tenshin Nasukawa. As of this recording, there has not been a rule set announced, but I would be surprised if it were anything other than boxing or some variant of boxing. Angela Lee has pulled out of her main event title fight at ONE Championship Heart of the Lion this weekend as she has injured a disk in her back that is causing a lot of pain and hindering her training. That moves the co-main event bantamweight unification bout between Bibiano Fernandes and Kevin Belingon to main event status. That is a fairly strong card for Singapore though and despite losing the draw of Angela Lee in a champion vs champion bout it's still a good card and should be fun. In other massive news, ONE Championship has announced that they will hold both a lightweight and flyweight Grand Prix in 2019, and of course, recently signed talents of Eddie Alvarez and Demetrious Johnson will play key roles in both those tournaments. At the ONE Championship summit this week Sage Northcutt was spotted in attendance, could there be another announcement to come? Let’s see. It doesn’t stop there… ONE Championship has announced they will be investing 50 Million into e-sports. In my first episode, I had talked about how esports might be a consideration for Mighty Mouse to make the move over, but I had not at all expected it to be with ONE itself. 50 Million is a massive investment and that could instantly put ONE at the top of the e-sports space in Southeast Asia. Over the weekend at FMD 16: Big Trouble in Little Bangkok they also dipped their toes into the e-sports space with a Tekken match between Malaysian MMA fighters Peter Davis and Nik Harris, both of whom have worked to expand their brand outside of MMA. At that same FMD event, Glen Sparv was able to pick up the FMD middleweight championship against a game Mehdi Bagari and Amp Boonsorn handed Thai Women's MMA standout Loma Lookboonmee her first loss to claim the inaugural FMD Woman's atomweight championship. At Road FC 50 in Daejeon South Korea Lee Jeong-Yeong was able to secure the victory and bring home the Road FC Featherweight title from the champion Choi Mu-Gyeom via unanimous decision.    

Sucka Radio is back for the third episode of 2018 and the ongoing theme of Asian MMA is continuing onward and upward. This week, host Jeremy Brand is joined by ONE Championship features editor Bear Frazer.  Sucka Radio w/ Bear Frazer Brand starts off the show by digging into Frazer's back story and how he got into the whole journalism thing. The two then ramble on about wild and embarrassing moments, then flow right into where the man known as Bear has settled today -- ONE Championship. You can keep up with Bear Frazer on Twitter and Instagram, as well as ONEFC.com. Stay tuned right here at MMA Sucka for more live streams as well as videos highlighting the top fighters, commentators, coaches, promoters and other names in MMA and combat sports. We also bring you great offers on the latest MMA products and merchandise. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel for regular updates and all the latest fight news. You can also check out our sister site, at TheFightBuzz.com for the latest from the world of MMA and other combat sports.

On this week’s episode of Fresh is the Word, we have a huge guest, CEO of the Singapore-based ONE Championship Victor Cui. To many, Cui has been labeled as the “most powerful man in Asian MMA” and ONE Championship is the biggest MMA promotion in Asian. ONE Championship was launched in July of 2011 by multimillionaire entrepreneur Chatri Sityodtong along with Victor Cui and the promotion has grown in leaps and bounds over the past couple years. In our interview, we talked about the values behind the culture of ONE, their weight management practices, Angela Lee, the progression of women’s MMA, and the upcoming Lightweight title bout between Eduard Folayang and Ev Ting at their event Kings of Destiny on April 21st in Manila. And like always, Vstylez joins the podcast for a discussion of what’s going on in the world of pro wrestling and MMA. Topics include: – The passing of Jim Ross’ wife – The Usos winning the Smackdown Tag Championship – American Alpha’s tenure on the main roster – Jac --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/freshistheword/message