Rear Naked Choke Radio (MMA)
Check us out! Joe Rizzo and Jay Kelly dig deep into the lives of the movers and shakers of the world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) to get the real stories of the combat sports world. Join the guys on iTunes and your favorite podcasting apps.
Episodes
December 10, 2021
Joe Rizzo brings you MMA on Rear Naked Choke Radio, breaking down the UFC 269 main card. Charles Oliveira meets Dustin Poirier for the 155-pound belt, while Amanda Nunes defends her title against Juliana Pena.
Riz also gives a look at some of the fights on the undercard, including a female underdog worth taking a look at.
For this and more, subscribe wherever you find your podcasts, be it Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube.
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January 21, 2021
Joe Rizzo brings you MMA. As Rear Naked Choke Radio kicked off its 15th (!) year, Riz was joined by Nick Kalikas (@FightOdds) of Circa Sports in Las Vegas to talk about Conor McGregor and his fight against Dustin Poirier at UFC 257 on January 23.
Nick is the Risk Supervisor and works in the Risk Room at Circa, and he specializes in making the betting lines for MMA, plus most of the other major sports. He offered incredible insigh...
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September 25, 2020
Joe Rizzo brings you MMA. Riz broke apart the UFC 253 title matches and a lot more with a crew from The Building Downtown, which includes long-time former co-host Jay Kelly. The middleweight division features champ Israel Adesanya against Paulo Costa, and there's a new champion to take Jon Jones' vacated spot in the light-heavyweight class between Dominick Reyes and Jan Błachowicz.
There was more than just critical fight analysis,...
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August 14, 2020
Joe Rizzo brings you MMA. Riz broke apart the UFC 252 heavyweight title trilogy match between champ Stipe Miocic and former belt-holder Daniel Cormier. He talked about what it would mean for either fighter to win the title, in terms of their future prospects, legacy in the division and in the whole of MMA. Riz looked at this "old guy" card as fans' best opportunity to see the greatest in the UFC for at least a month, as the next Pa...
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Joe Rizzo brings you MMA. Riz (@RearNakedChoke) and Jay Kelly (@JayKellyMMA) now of The Building Downtown (@TheBuildingDT) brought back the good ole days of RNC Radio on the heels of The UFC Fight Island event in which Deiveson Figueiredo wiped out Joseph Benavidez for the 125-pound title. They kicked it off with some talk about the event, which had ended mere moments before they talked, but then transitioned to the state of broadc...
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Joe Rizzo brings you MMA. RIz (@RearNakedChoke) finally sat down with Sergio Da Silva to discuss all aspects of his amazing life. Da Silva (@TheSavage125) might not be the most recognizable name in MMA, but he's kept company with some of the biggest names in the world. Born in Rio and moved to Queens when he was 3, Da Silva explained his most unlikely introduction to late Soprano's lead James Gandolfini, and detailed how he ended u...
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Joe Rizzo brings you MMA. Riz devoured the UFC 249 card. After a few days to come back down to earth, he broke down what we saw in real time and what it means going forward, from the excitement of Sam Alvey absorbing cheers from a non-existent crowd, to Bryce Mitchell's domination, to Henry Cejudo's retirement and Dominick Cruz's criticism of referee Keith Peterson. Then there is the matter of Justin Gaethje. Riz explained why thi...
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April 9, 2020
Joe Rizzo explains why UFC 249 never stood a chance. The event was slated for April 18 at Tachi Palace in Lemoore, Calif., but was scuttled when UFC president Dana White was asked by the top brass at ESPN and parent company Disney to cancel the event, and others that were being planned there for the coming weeks. White told ESPN that he still plans on moving forward with his plan for Fight Island, and says that the infrastructure i...
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The Corona Virus (COVID-19) is sweeping the globe with tremendous ramifications. Joe Rizzo (@RearNakedChoke) and Jay Kelly (@JayKellyMMA) break down what it could make UFC events look like in the future. Find out how they arrived at the big question: If Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov had only 1,000 seats available, how much would people pay? Tweet your answers to the guys and @RNCRadio. There was also a full deconstruction ...
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Jason Kelly (@JayKellyMMA) and Joe Rizzo (@rearnakedchoke) hooked up RNC Radio with The Building Downtown to chat UFC 248, BTC 9: Rampage, Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder, and a strangely true comparison.
UFC 248 is headlined by middleweight champion Israel Adesanya vs. Yoel Romero, with a co-main event between strawweight champion Zhang Weili vs. former division queen Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Kelly and Rizzo talked about the four fighte...
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Joe Rizzo (@RearNakedChoke) is joined by fellow gray-beard Joe LoZito (@Joe_LoZito) to reminisce about the day 30 years ago this week that the unbeatable Mike Tyson was knocked out by 42-1 underdog Buster Douglas, and the cultural impact of the event as they saw it with their own eyes. Eventually some other important subjects were covered, like Roadhouse, Heartbreak Ridge, the art of acquiring hockey-fight tapes, and how to follow...
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February 10, 2020
UFC 247 featured some dubious judging, in a sport where we have seen way too much of it. Joe Rizzo (@RearNakedChoke) and Jay Kelly (@JayKellyMMA) assessed what happened on a night where Dominick Reyes appeared to be robbed of the light-heavyweight belt with a great performance against legendary Jon Jones. In addition, Andrea "KGB" Lee and Ilir Latifi were on the wrong side of stunning decision. And James Krause missed a chance to h...
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February 6, 2020
The underdogs in the main events of UFC 247 are live, according to Rear Naked Choke Radio's Joe Rizzo and Jay Kelly. The hosts did another shared episode with The Building Downtown, and dove in depth to the fights in Houston. Joe gave reasons why old friend and former occasional RNC Radio host Katlyn Chookagian could upset Valentina Shevchenko in the women's flyweight division title fight, and why he thinks Dominick Reyes might be ...
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January 15, 2020
The big return of Conor McGregor at UFC 246 against Cowboy Cerrone was good enough to get Joe Rizzo (@RearNakedChoke) and Jay Kelly (@JayKellyMMA) on the air. Jay now also hosts The Building Downtown (@BuildingDowntown) and the guys got together to share this episode, so you can also catch it over there. McGregor returns to MMA for the first time since getting beaten by Khabib Nurmagomedov on Oct. 6, 2018, and has not won in the ...
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January 9, 2020
Technically we are shooting for having this episode cover our entry in 2019. We DID a show, but technical crap on the back end with Talkshoe prevented us from ever airing it (until now). So here it is. Joe and Jay actually did it, and it literally took us a year (actually just a few days shy of a year) to post it. We talked about UFC Fight Night 143, and if anyone remembers that off the top of their heads, then kudos to them. Wh...
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July 9, 2018
It happened! Joe Rizzo and Jay Kelly have hosted RNC Radio together for years, but this show in front of a live studio audience in Mississauga, Ontario was the first time they have ever met in person! The guys talked about UFC 226, but it was the dynamic of having them in the same room at the same time with beers that made this one of the most special RNC Radio episodes ever. Whether this is your first time listening to MMA's longe...
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Conor McGregor, what have you done? Jay Kelly (@JayKellyMMA) and Joe Rizzo (@RearNakedChoke) make the assessment of McGregorâ??s criminal antics ahead of UFC 223 at the Barclayâ??s Center in Brooklyn. They captured the moments where the news broke that McGregor had surrendered himself to police some eight hours after starting a melee that at once left a wake of damage to fellow fighters and the UFC 223 card. Did McGregor abdicate h...
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Max Holloway, you have officially been declared a Jersey Guy. The declaration came on Rear Naked Choke Radio (@RNCRadio), as Joe Rizzo (@RearNakedChoke) declared it to Jay Kelly (@JayKellyMMA) after Hollowayâ??s heart-felt tweet to Frankie Edgar after UFC 222. Rizzo and Kelly took the opportunity to do a deep dive into the careers of Holloway, Edgar, Cris Cyborg and even the retiring Mike Pyle. There was talk of the rash of split d...
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Rear Naked Choke Radio turns 11 years old as Joe Rizzo (@RearNakedChoke) and Jay Kelly (@JayKellyMMA) returned to the podcast ethernet to talk MMA. It's a hang in which the listeners get to know the hosts (and guests) as real people. With UFC 223 in Brooklyn in the offing, Rizzo and Kelly broke down the two title fights, and the possibilities for the men's 155-pound division, and women's 115-pound circuit. Rose Namajunas defends he...
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March 30, 2017
Emily Miller was the first guest in the history of the show known today as Rear Naked Choke Radio. For the 10th anniversary celebration, Joe Rizzo (@RearNakedChoke) and Emily (@EmilyMillerLV) shot the shit for an hour. It was in typical RNC Radio fashion - no frills, just a hang in which the listeners get to know the guests as real people. The first time Emily was on the show, she was a mere 20 years old and was just starting out a...
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