No Holds Barred Tenth Anniversary: Kevin Jackson on Iowa State Wrestling and NCAA Championships

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman once again spoke with Kevin Jackson, the Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion freestyle wrestler, who is the head wrestling coach for the legendary Iowa State Cyclones.

This is another in a series of discussions celebrating the tenth anniversary of this No Holds Barred podcast, which began in March 2006. These interviews will focus both on the legacy and issues raised over the years on this show, as well as contemporary issues and the future of the combat sports and martial arts.

We spoke with Kevin Jackson by phone Wednesday.

"Thanks for having me, Eddie," he said. "It's a pleasure to be on your show. Congratulations on the ten year anniversary. It's amazing how fast time goes by. We've been friends and we've talked about a lot of different subjects over the years. It's just a pleasure to be a part of your ten year anniversary and No Holds Barred and talk to you today."

Iowa State, which just finished third at the Big 12 Championships, will be bringing six wrestlers to compete at the 2016 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, which take place March 17-19 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Once again the ESPN networks will provide live video of every match, with the finals and semifinals televised live on ESPN, the other four sessions televised live on ESPNU, and ESPN3.com providing live multi-mat viewing throughout.

The six Iowa State wrestlers who will be competing at the 2016 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships are: Kyle Larson at 125, 2014 All-American Earl Hall at 133, Tanner Weatherman at 165, two-time Big 12 champion Lelund Weatherspoon at 174, Dane Pestano at 184, and Patrick Downey at 197.

We discussed the prospects for each of these wrestlers.

We also discussed several broader issues, including the failure of the many recent attempts to create a real professional wrestling organization; how wrestling is still not locked into the Olympic Games; why wrestling is a "sport as blue collar as it gets"; how wrestling "is a sport for all"; the issue of diversity in college wrestling; MMA and wrestling; and much, much more.

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Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

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The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.

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

The Frank Gotch World Catch Wrestling Tournament. On Sunday, July 3, 2016, catch wrestlers from all around the world will compete in Humboldt, Iowa, the hometown of the legendary world champion wrestler Frank Gotch. Organized by the Catch Wrestling Alliance and co-sponsored by IAWrestle, the Frank Gotch Statue Committee, and the Frank Gotch Kids Wrestling Club, the event will take place at Humboldt High School. For more information, go to CatchWrestlingAlliance.com.

The North American Catch Wrestling Association, a grassroots organization designed to help rebuild the sport of catch-as-catch-can-wrestling. For more information, go to their Facebook page at facebook.com/NorthAmericanCatchWrestlingAssociation.

BJJ Eastern Europe, for the latest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu news, articles, interviews, competition calendar, European belt rankings, academy directory, and more. For more information, go to BJJEE.com.

The National Registry for Wrestling, whose mission is to increase wrestling's fanbase, to build a registry of all wrestling fans, to serve as a connecting point for all wrestling fans, and to provide TV and Internet listings for wrestling. For more information, go to NR4W.com.

Thanks, Eddie Goldman
EddieGoldman.com

Really could have sworn the show was older than that.