Learn the basics of amateur wrestling from John Smith, head coach of the Oklahoma State Cowboys and one of the most decorated wrestlers in American sports history. In this instructional video, Coach Smith explains how a pin (or “fall”) is achieved, and explains the new out of bounds rule, illegal moves, injury timeouts, and the scoring system for both individual matches and dual meets.

John Smith is the all-time winningest coach at Oklahoma State University, whose wrestling program has won an NCAA-best 34 team national championships. Smith is a two-time NWCA National Coach of the Year, and has coached the Cowboys to five NCAA team national titles. Smith has also coached more than twenty NCAA individual champions, as well as nearly 100 All-Americans. In addition to wrestling for and now coaching his alma mater, Smith is a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and has also coached the USA Olympic Wrestling team.

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After their first meeting fell by the wayside, Ray Mercer and Ron Sparks
are set to duke it out in the cage.

Mercer, an Olympic gold medalist and former world champion boxer, will
meet undefeated super heavyweight Ron Sparks at King of the Cage's "No
Mercy" on Sept. 17 at Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Connecticut. The
event is expected to air live on HDNet.

KOTC promoter Terry Trebilcock confirmed the news Wednesday with
MMAjunkie.com.

Olympic Gold Medalist Henry Cejudo is in the Running for “Favorite Athlete” at the 4th Annual American Latino TV Awards 
Phoenix, AZ – June 9, 2010 - American Latino TV, a nationally syndicated half hour weekly program hosted by Valery Ortiz, recently announced that Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo is a “Favorite Athlete” nominee for the 4th Annual American Latino TV Awards. The American Latino TV Awards recognize the accomplishments of American Latinos in a variety of categories. 
Each nominee has been featured on American Latino TV at some point during the past six seasons.  American Latino TV, aimed at second and third generation bilingual Hispanics, has a very extensive fan base. The weekly show is broadcast in more than 100 cities nationwide, reaching an estimated 76 million homes, accounting for 90 percent of U.S. Hispanic homes. 
The American Latino TV Awards is the only English language, American Latino-themed awards show that allows the fans to determine the winners, and to Cejudo, that is what makes it so special.  
“It is an honor just to be nominated for an American Latino TV award. It would of course be an even bigger honor to receive the “Favorite Athlete” award, especially because the fans determine the winners,” states Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo.
Cejudo went on to say, “I am up against some tough competition in the “Favorite Athlete” category, but I have faith in my fans! Come on everybody, please go to the American Latino TV website and cast your vote!”
The American Latino Awards showcase the best American Latinos to have appeared over the last year in a variety of categories including Favorite Athlete, Favorite Up & Comer, Favorite Indie Artist, Latino Actor, Latino Artist and Most Inspiring American Latino.  American Latino TV producers selected four nominees in each of the six categories, each of whom have been featured on the show. It is now up to the fans to choose the winners.
Fans can vote now through June 21st for their favorite American Latinos. Cast your vote for Henry Cejudo at  www.americanlatino.tv/awards.  
About Henry Cejudo:
Henry Cejudo is a freestyle wrestler who won a gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. At twenty-one years old, he was the youngest American ever to have won an Olympic wrestling gold medal. Henry was born in Los Angeles and currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona. For additional information on Henry Cejudo, please visit www.henrycejudo.com. We also encourage fans to follow Henry on Twitter, Facebook and You Tube.

Japanese Olympic gold-medalist Satoshi Ishii returns to action
against mixed martial arts rookie Myles Tyanes on June 4.

The pair meet in a featured matchup at "X-1: Nations Collide" at the
Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Ishii, the 2008 Beijing Games' judo heavyweight champion, seeks his
second-straight MMA win after earning a submission victory over Tafa
Misipati at this past week's "X-plosion: New Zealand vs. Japan" event in
New Zealand.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Former WWE star and Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle is hopeful that in the future he can make a move to mixed martial arts. He compares himself to other former WWE stars like Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley, noting that his wrestling pedigree is better than theirs. The only problem being is he can’t wrestle and fight in the octagon at the same time.

HT: MMADiehards.com

Hidehiko Yoshida has an opponent for his retirement fight, but the choice may come as a surprise.

The former Japanese Olympic gold medalist meets teammate and UFC/PRIDE veteran Kazuhiro Nakamura at the April 25 ASTRA event at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Japan, event officials today announced.

Other bouts confirmed for the card include Ryo Chonan vs. Jung Hwan Cha and Bellator/Strikeforce vet Jorge Masvidal vs. Naoyuki Kotani.

Olympic gold medalist and former world champion boxer Ray Mercer will put on the four-ounce gloves once again on April 16 and face
undefeated super heavyweight Ron Sparks at a recently announced
King of the Cage event at Cobo Arena in Detroit.

The matchup was announced on the most recent edition of HDNet's "Inside
MMA," and the same network will air the event's main card.

Mercer is best known to MMA fans as the man who knocked out former UFC
heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia at a June 2009 Adrenaline MMA event, while Sparks has fought exclusively on the local circuits since his 2006 debut.

In this week's installment of HDNet Fights Video Vault, we revisit the highly anticipated MMA debut of Hiroshi Izumi.

The 2004 Japanese Olympic gold medalist looked to apply his judo trade to MMA, and Izumi had an entire country hanging on his pro debut in September 2009

So when World Victory Road's Sengoku event series pitted Izumi against fellow MMA newcomer Antz Nansen, a New Zealand-based kickboxer, fans had high hopes. But would the celebration be short lived?

Former PRIDE fighter and Japanese star Hidehiko Yoshida will fight for the final time on April 25.

Yoshida, a 1992 Olympic gold medalist in judo who turned pro in MMA in 2002, will help organize an event called "ASTRA," though no opponent has been announced.

The event takes place at the 15,000-seat Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Japan, and features fellow Yoshida Dojo fighters Kazuhiro Nakamura, Tatsunao Nagakura, Michihiro Omigawa and Makoto Takimoto.

Coming off a TKO victory against James Wilks in November, the “Immortal” Matt Brown (13-7 MMA, 4-1 UFC) took a trip to Oahu, Hawaii to add some “aloha” to his fight game in preparation for his bout with Ricardo Almeida (11-3 MMA, 4-3 UFC) at UFC 111.

FiveOuncesofPain.com recently had the chance to catch up with Brown at the Hawaii Martial Arts Center & Central Oahu Jiu Jitsu Academy to gather his thoughts on a number of issues, including his upcoming bout with the “Big Dog”.

Taking the advice of Matt Hume without very much persuasion, Brown jumped on a plane; destination Hawaii, to begin training with Haru Shimanishi.

“Matt [Hume] suggested I come out here,” said Brown. “He said we would like Haru’s style, and we do.”

While the majority of Brown’s two week trip revolved around training and preparing for his next fight, he still managed to sneak in some time for himself.

This was Brown’s first trip to Hawaii only the second time in his life that he had seen the ocean first hand.

Like many visitors to Hawaii, Brown has given surfing a shot, explaining, “I’m pretty close. I can actually catch waves now.”

When speaking of his trip to the island paradise as a whole, Brown explained, “It was great, man. I got some really good training, I got to see Hawaii, and I did a lot of fun things.”

In addition to working on his stand-up game with Haru, Brown was exposed to some great BJJ and had the opportunity to roll with students of BJJ Black Belt Kai Garcia. Some other notable grapplers that Brown had the opportunity to roll with included up and coming fighters Mario Miranda and Olympic gold medalist Satoshi Ishii.

Brown is currently intent on building upon his current three fight win streak in the UFC, but he’s going to have to go through decorated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Ricardo Almeida to do it.

“He’s one of those guys I watched all the way back in Pride,” said Brown. “I have a lot of respect for him. He really is a great fighter.

“Hopefully it can be an exciting fight. I think it would be a huge jump in my career, with a victory over him. I don’t think it’s any secret, I want this fight on the feet, and he wants it on the ground. It’s kind of the classic striker versus grappler match-up. Hopefully he changes his mind and decides to be a striker for a day (laughs).”

When asked about fighting on Almeida’s home turf of New Jersey, Brown said, “It makes no difference to me. I’ve fought many guys in their own hometowns.”

After all, his last fight was in James Wilks’ hometown.

“The cage feels the same whether you’re in, you know, Las Vegas, Australia, England, or wherever.”

Brown doesn’t like to make predictions about his fights. He believes that predicting his fights can lead to false expectations or negative pressure. The one thing Brown was certain of was he would “perform well and do his job”

However, after some nudging he did offer, “It could end so many different way. I’m gonna wear him out and finish him with some sort of TKO.”

Brown will leave Hawaii at the end of January and return home to Las Vegas, where he will gather some items and head back to Seattle. There he will start fine-tuning his game plan with his coaches in Washington in preparation for his fight in March.