No Holds Barred: Bob Carson on the State of MMA and Combat Sports

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with Bob Carson, the host of Carson's Corner.

To mark the ninth anniversary of the No Holds Barred podcast this week, we did not have cake or drink beer, but had a lengthy and wide-ranging discussion on the state of MMA and the combat sports in general.

We spoke with Bob Carson by Skype Wednesday.

Speaking of the state of MMA today, he minced no words.

"What you have is basically a spectacle that I don't think is on a solid foundation anymore," he said.

"I think that this is a sport now unfortunately that is one scandal away, one mishap away from extinction."

We discussed these myriad scandals plaguing MMA and whether or not it could survive in the long-term. We also discussed the lessons and implications of these scandals for re-emerging sports like catch wrestling and combat wrestling, the pathetic role played by virtually all of those who masquerade as the MMA "media", the current revival of boxing, and much, much more.

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Thanks, Eddie Goldman
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I enjoyed this one.

MMA is definitely on a downturn. I think two things can save it: Zuffa's downfall and the upswing of a non-zuffa affiliated Eastern org, namely ONE or M-1 or somethng out of Japan or China.

I too feel that Ronda's dominance are more a commentary on WMMA than on Ronda's "greatness". She is a professional getting wins on amateurs. Most American female fighters have been only at it a few years. They start off in their twenties doing it just to be with their bfs or to get exercise. Not like Ronda who comes from a hardcore martial arts family and literally had to pull off armbars in her sleep growing up.

Some really top notch programs recently. I could listen to a daily podcast with Eddie Goldman and Bob Carson.

Maybe I'm a bit to strict on the facts, but there was one inaccuracy, when Carson mentioned talk of Rousey fighting a man, and said it wouldn't happen/be discussed in boxing.

There was a time when Ann Wolfe was trying to get a fight with a male boxer (it was billed tentatively as Ann vs Man in some boxing articles and stuff).

However, most boxing people seemed entirely against the idea (I recall Teddy Atlas even doing a whole segment on it. "There are differences between a male and a female. Physiological differences.")

So in a way, Carson is correct, insofar as people in boxing basically scoffed at the idea.

For Ann Wolfe's part, she was the one pursuing the fight, and her reasoning was that she had no one else to fight. I can also see merits from her side. She was a beast of a boxer, and was probably head and shoulders above anyone else. As such, at the time, I wasn't really completely opposed to the idea. However, it never did happen (there have in fact been man vs woman boxing matches--as well as kickboxing--in the past, but I think Carson is talking about the current scene with boxing, really).

By the way, for those who don't know, Ann Wolf is the trainer of James Kirkland (actually, last I heard they'd fallen out again, and Kirkland's trainer for his upcoming fight with Saul Alvarez was undecided. But she's trained him for most of his fights, and the last time they had a falling out Kirkland so happened to get knocked out in the first round by Nobuhiro Ishida. Not that Wolfe not being in his corner necessarily had anything to do with it, but a lot of speculation has been made to the effect that Wolf is a terrific trainer for him and very important to his success. Kirkland has himself said the same ("no trainer pushes you as hard as Ann Wolfe. There are no trainers out there who make you run 8 miles every morning like Ann Wolf does.)).

Famous Ann Wolf knockout: