Ring Psychology: Michael Schiavello on K-1, Chael Sonnen and Fighting Crackheads on the Street

My good friend Jonathan Snowden and I have gotten back on the horse again, this time on a venture titled Ring Psychology. Props to anybody who remembers Total MMA Radio from way back when, and how we basically were able to piss off the world.

One of the hot topics in the media this week has revolved around Roger Huerta's street brawl. Well, Schiavello can relate, as he himself got into a brawl last year and he told us all about it.

So this guy starts throwing punches, and he is a pretty well built guy and he is throwing punches and I cover up against him, double forearms, and he is cracking punches. My mate who is a bouncer was also my former Muay Thai instructor taught me this choke move, it's called a bouncer's choke, I guess similar to what you call a rape choke where you just put two fingers around the esophagus and just start squeezing. So I shot my hand out while this guy is punching me, grab his esophagus, and just started squeezing my fingers around by the back of his larynx and basically choking him. You know, I choke him, put him on the ground, hopped on top of him and I was mounted on him and I'm still choking him... and my girlfriend's brother-in-law and her cousin have come around to my assistance an I said to this guy, 'listen, ease up, I'm gonna let you go, just go about your merry way.' 

So I let him off the floor and he gets up and starts walking off, then for some reason he has another spaz attack, turns around, starts yelling obscenities and starts running after me. Now, by this time my girlfriend Irene is standing behind me as well, I'm like, you know, there is no way I'm gonna let this guy get anywhere near me, if he starts throwing punches I don't want him hitting Irene or anyone else, so I just braced myself and throw a front kick straight at his heart. He comes running in, I throw a front kick, boom hit him straight in the heart.

We also spoke about Schiavello and his broadcast partner Mike Kogan announcing the recent K-1 -63kgs tournament and their comments and if there was any pushback from HDNet or K-1.

No, no pushback, you know the fact of the matter is, that Mike Kogan and I always call it as we see it, and I gotta give credit to Mike for that because he is the head of FEG USA, he's paid by FEG USA and he was sitting there and basically putting the heavy word on one of the fighters they've signed in Miyata, and Miyata's performance. I like Miyata, I'm a fan, I built him up at DREAM, you know, Little Hercules and helped build him up in the last DREAM event when he fought in the cage, big fan. But if you are going to make that transition to K-1, do the proper training to be able to do it, and be able to throw your combinations.

We also touch upon the state of Japanese MMA and K-1, journalists covering MMA and kickboxing rather poorly (oh yeah, we get meta) and lots about Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen. You can listen to it streaming at Angry Marks or download it on ITunes.