No Holds Barred: Curran Jacobs, from College Wrestling to Catch Wrestling

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with wrestler and former Michigan State Spartans' team captain Curran Jacobs.

He will be wrestling on the card of the Catch Wrestling Alliance International Invitational: The Rebirth.

This event will take place Saturday, June 7, in Collins Court in the John Wooden Center on the campus of UCLA, at 221 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, California 90095-1612.

This invitational event will be held under catch wrestling rules, where you can only win by pin or submission. His opponent will be U.K. catch wrestler Ian Bromley.

We spoke with Curran Jacobs by phone Friday.

After finishing his college wrestling career in 2012 and moving to California to pursue an acting career, Curran Jacobs, like many former college wrestlers, thought that he had "hung up my shoes for good." Then he had dinner with MMA and wrestling legend Randy Couture and wrestling historian and author Mike Chapman.

Discussing his decision to compete in catch wrestling, he said, "Well, it was a pleasant surprise, and it came by me completely by chance. I had dinner with Randy Couture and Mike Chapman in Malibu about a month ago. And Mike was talking about Frank Gotch, one of the greatest American wrestlers of all time, way back in the day. Not too many people are familiar with him, which is unfortunate because he played a huge role in what wrestling is today."

He continued, "I myself wasn't really aware of him until Mike brought him to my attention. I did a little research and was just completely blown away. And I got excited about this catch wrestling ordeal. And Mike told me about Coach Raul Ramirez putting on this tournament, this event on June 7th. And as he was talking about it, I kind of got a little excited and said, 'Where can I sign up?'"

After that, he began training in catch wrestling with Raul Ramirez of the Catch Wrestling Alliance.

We discussed his training in catch wrestling and his transition from American folkstyle wrestling to this discipline, where you can only win by pin or submission. Like many people, he believes that catch wrestling could be successfully revived as a major professional spectator sport.

"I think that it has all the potential in the world," he said. "What's wonderful about it is, it's not complex."

We also discussed how he is encouraging his former teammates at Michigan State to become involved in catch wrestling, how impressed he is with the training he is getting with Raul Ramirez, and much more.

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

MMA World Expo. The mixed martial arts community comes to New York City July 26 and 27, 2014, for the fifth annual MMA World Expo, featuring the Fighters Source U.S. Nationals amateur MMA tournament, two days of ADCC no-gi and gi grappling tournaments, MMA fighters, seminars with world-class trainers, vendors, panel discussions, catch wrestling competition, and much more. The MMA World Expo takes place Saturday, July 26, and Sunday, July 27, 2014, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

ONE Fighting Championship. ONE FC is Asia's largest and most prestigious mixed martial arts event. ONE FC features the best Asian fighters and has initiated the ONE Asia Partnership Network, which includes most of the major MMA promotions and MMA gyms in Asia. For more information, go to their web site, at ONEFC.com.

American Top Team. Whether you're a beginner or a champion, train with the champions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, wrestling, grappling, and mixed martial arts at American Top Team. Check out their web site at http://americantopteam.com/.

Thanks, Eddie Goldman
EddieGoldman.com