No Holds Barred: Raul Ramirez on 2017 Frank Gotch World Catch Wrestling Tournament

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Raul Ramirez of the Catch Wrestling Alliance.

Our main topic was the 2017 Frank Gotch World Catch Wrestling Tournament.

This event, which had its inaugural edition last year, has emerged as the biggest and most important tournament in the world in catch wrestling.

This year's edition will take place Saturday, July 15, at Humboldt High School in Humboldt, Iowa. Humboldt is the hometown of the legendary wrestler Frank Gotch, who was world heavyweight champion in the early 1900s when professional wrestling was still a real sport.

We spoke with Raul Ramirez by phone Wednesday.

This event will feature "authentic catch-as-catch-can wrestling, like the way it was done in the 1800s and early 1900s. You can go back and see the old rulebooks," he said. "Basically there are no points, and you can win by pin or submission."

Competition is planned for five men's weight classes and a women's division whose format will be determined depending on how many women sign up for the event.

In addition, this year there will be an absolute division open to the winners in each men's weight class. The winner of the absolute division will take home a $500 cash prize.

Matches will be one fall each with a 20-minute time limit. If time expires before there is a pin or submission, to keep the tournaments going, a winner will be chosen by officials based on who was the most dominant wrestler.

Among the wrestlers so far slated to compete are Curran Jacobs, Travis Wiuff, Christopher Morales, Nicholas "The Giant" Caggia, and Qin Yunquan.

We discussed the development of this event, the differences and similarities between catch wrestling and other styles like American folkstyle and freestyle, plans to live stream and record the video of this event, how more schools and wrestlers are training in catch wrestling than previously, the need to revive real professional wrestling with catch rules, his teaching catch wrestling to many grapplers and wrestlers in Singapore, the involvement of many members of the wrestling community in Iowa in this event, the need for drug testing in catch wrestling, and much more.

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No Holds Barred is sponsored by:

The 2017 Frank Gotch World Catch Wrestling Tournament. On Saturday, July 15, 2017, 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 (CWA) and co-sponsored by City of Humboldt Chamber of Commerce, Sprout Living (official protein powder of the CWA), and Ultima Replenisher (official electrolyte drink of the CWA), the event will take place at Humboldt High School. For more information, go to CatchWrestlingAlliance.com.

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USA Combat Wrestling, the official U.S. governing body for combat wrestling and U.S. delegate of the International Combat Wrestling Federation (FICW), which was founded by the legendary wrestler Noriaki Kiguchi of Japan. For more information, go to CombatWrestling.us.

Thanks, Eddie Goldman
EddieGoldman.com