My cohort Jonathan Snowden and myself sat down the other night with the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal for our show, Ring Psychologywhile he prepares for his first title defense against Rafael Cavalcante at this weekend's "Strikeforce: Houston" event. We discussed a whole slew of topics while Mo was winding down from a rough day and as always, he had a lot to say.

One of the big topics we discussed was if he sees a future for himself fighting in Japan. This is of course right in the midst of all of the controversy surrounding FEG not paying their fighters, during all of this, WVR's SRC has gotten a free ride as the "better Japanese promotion." Mo was quick to debunk this.

They left me with the damn hospital bills not being paid...they didn't pay for it so I'm not going to go back and fight for them. I tore my ACL in the fight against Kawamura and they wouldn't pay for the surgery. So, it's whatever man...I'm not going to fight in Japan unless I'm getting paid upfront.

So it seems that SRC taking care of their fighters is not exactly true. I think there are just less and less foreign fighters fighting in SRC and more lower-level Japanese and Korean fighters. We then talked about his win over Mousasi and how fans are ignorant and wrote Mousasi off for not better defending Mo's wrestling.

Some are cool, some are idiots. They're fans-they don't know what the f**k they are talking about. That's why I'll say it again: 'f**k the fans.' A lot of them ain't educated. They're just bandwagon jumpers...

A bit brash, sure, but he is making a very valid point, to where Mousasi was a "top 5" 205lbs fighter, then when Mo beat him, everyone changed their minds and decided he wasn't as good as they initially believed.

We discuss this and a whole lot more, as Fraser Coffeen joins Jon and myself to discuss some K-1 and kickboxing. Then to round out the show, Strikeforce's Miesha Tate, who recently earned a title shot in the 135 pound weight class, joins us to discuss female fighting, rape prevention and more. You can download the show from I-Tunes or listen live by heading over to our friends at Angry Marks. Thanks for tuning in. Feedback welcome.

SBN coverage of Strikeforce: Houston

Total MMA author Jonathan Snowden and myself come back for a second round of our podcast, Ring Psychology. This time we are joined by one of Team Quest's head trainers and now a legend in the sport of MMA, Matt "The Law" Lindland. The big news from this week is his protege Chael Sonnen's performance against UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva, and Matt Lindland was in Chael's corner from the beginning of the training to the end of the fight. Lindland gives us some of his views from cageside as well some of the business aspects they worked on to hype up the fight:

First of all, Chael's always been a big pro wrestling fan. First and foremost. So we studied that sport and the entertainment side of the business for a long time. And I have to give Chael all the credit for going out there and doing it. Obviously he's a very intelligent man to be able to pull that off. To get people to believe it and buy into it, to actually believe it so much that they did it with their wallet. They opened up their wallets and said 'I believe in this so much I'm going to go ahead and put my money down to see you prove it.'  That says a lot. It shows what kind of salesman he is.

Matt talks about the importance of selling a fight and selling yourself as a brand, which is something you don't hear a lot of fighters talking about, but probably should. Lindland also speaks about his own career, including his class with Sports Management Worldwide that takes a look at the "other side" of the MMA game. He also speaks about his future with Strikeforce, including the Middleweight Tournament:

I'd certainly like that, to be a part of that middleweight tournament. I think I'd make a nice addition to that show and lend some real credibility to that event. I look forward to hearing the final word- 'there will be a tournament, here is the bracket, and you'll be a part of it.' I'm looking forward to getting back in the ring. I can tell you training with Chael Sonnen and being in the room with him and still be a sparring partner that can push him...should say a lot about what kind of athlete I am.

Then to round things out, we talk to Team Quest's Dave Jansen about his first ever loss, injury and how he dealt with that. We go into details on how it is for an up-and-coming fighter when it comes to insurance, paying the bills, how to talk trash and working with sponsors while trying to make his fights exciting enough to make it to the live television broadcast. Stream the show live at Angry Marks or download it from I Tunes. Feedback appreciated.

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.

This is a programming note if anything, as I [once again] appeared on fellow SBN-blogger elite WatchKalibRun.com's Cage Cast. As with every other time Zak Woods and myself have gotten together to talk about MMA, you can expect obscure film, literature and historical references, out there comparisons and me going as far off topic as you could ever imagine while being vastly entertaining. 

This is very much a follow-up to Zak's story about Chuck's latest horrific loss and how there is nothing "romantic" about it. In fact, it is quite disturbing.

Well it took us long enough. After dabbling with the idea of doing a podcast for the site, we've decided to do a "soft-launch" and see how well it goes. Fraser and myself take a look at what is coming up this year in the kickboxing world, including the K-1 and K-1 MAX tournaments this year, which fighters to look out for as well as what to expect from companies like It's Showtime in Europe.

Feedback, of course, is welcome. We hope to continue on with this in the future as well as get some interviews and answer any questions or discuss any topics that our reads (in this case listeners) might be interested in. 

Excuse any mention of the now past It's Showtime card, as this was recorded at the end of last week before that card happened (circumstances, you understand I'm sure). 

Bonus points to anybody who picks up the intro song being covered.

Head Kick Radio 2.18 (Download)