The Todd Atkins Show

Francisco Bueno, like many of my guests, is one of the original pioneers of the early MMA era. He is also one of the few Coral Belts in Jiu-jitsu on the planet. His pupil Carlos Mota Tizil is a Championship Contender in the LFA promotion. He lost a title fight in the last LFA event against Charles Johnson in an early Fight of the Year Candidate. Johnson is likely to move on to the UFC as a result. In the fight both fighters had combined for over 600 strikes through 4 rounds. Johnson went on to stop Carlos in the final round. In this episode we talk about the fight, the feeling of coming a big loss and how to battle those feelings.. Francisco talks about how he believes Carlos will be a UFC Champion and how this fight with take him to another level.

Dave Fretz is a photographer and graphic designer in the MMA community that has been doing amazing work for a number of promotions. In this interview we talk about his inspiring story which led him to leave his regular job during the pandemic and turn his MMA passion into a full-time paying career.

Dylan Smith is the Promoter of the new Martial Combat League event which is holding shows in and around the Oklahoma City Area. He is also the owner of Shah Mat Jiu-jitsu in Enid Oklahoma and a Black Belt in Jiu-jitsu under Piet Wilhelm. In this episode we focused on his new promotion and what he thought of getting into this arena after fighting and opening a gym of his own. This interview was done a week prior to his last event which took place on February 12th. So this discussion is all pre-event in nature.

Lydia Des Dolles is an MMA journalist from Ireland that is currently based out of the UK. She is the founder of Fight Connect TV, host of the First Exchange Podcast, Media Director for Empire Fight Store as well as Public Relations and Communications for One Empire Management. In this episode we talked about her origins in covering MMA, her memories of being in Ireland during Conor McGregor's UFC title run and much more.

Scott Bessac was Ken Shamrock's first student and fighter on the infamous Lion's Den Fight Team of the early UFC's. He would go on to fight multiple times in both Pancrase and the UFC. In this interview we talk about his memories of the brutal training sessions that the Lion's Den was known for, his memories of Ken and Frank Shamrock as well as how Ken changed once he became famous. This is a look behind both the good and bad that came with training inside the Lion's Den.

UFC Creator Art Davie and UFC II Fighter Robert Lucarelli join the show to discuss stories from the early UFC days. Art Davie shares some of his experiences from starting the early UFC events and Robert Lucarelli talks about his experiences leading up to UFC II and his fight with Orlando Wiet. 

Enson Inoue of PRIDE FC fame returns with Bob Ostovich to discuss the #OPENUPHAWAIIMMA movement. For the past two years no Mixed Martial Arts events have been allowed to take place on any of the Hawaii islands. Concerts and jiujitsu tournaments are already being allowed to happen but MMA promoters are unable to get a permit from the state. In this episode we discuss some of our thoughts on why this is happening and Bob Ostovich talks about his thoughts for the future with his Trinity Sports Combat promotion.

Sidney Rosa is undefeated professional boxer from Portugal that is current based of Berlin Germany. He has trained in multiple countries along the way and was a sparring partner for Jose Aldo at Nova Uniao. In this episode we discuss his boxing background, training in Germany and memories of being a sparring partner of Jose Aldo. 

Bobby Southworth was born in Madison, Wisconsin and was adopted when he was six weeks old. Southworth has three sisters. He grew up in Santa Cruz, California playing football and basketball, surfing and doing track. After graduating from Soquel High School, Bobby continued to Cabrillo College and yet UC Davis, playing basketball in all of them.

His initial interest towards martial arts sparked after seeing Royce Gracie at UFC 1 and UFC 2. While Bobby was looking for a sport to stay fit, his friend invited him to a jiu-jitsu class in a nearby gym. Instantly hooked to the discipline, Bobby soon joined Cesar Gracie Jiu-Jitsu academy before moving on to Gracie Systems which was formed after Cesar's cousin Ralph Gracie moved stateside. Subsequently, Ralph opened his own academy in Mountain View, California where Bobby continued teaching and training jiu-jitsu. Bobby grew interested to take a no holds barred bout which was disapproved by Ralph, leading to Bobby's departure from the academy. Subsequently Bobby joined American Kickboxing Academy which at the time had no proper Brazilian jiu-jitsu program, so he took the responsibility of teaching the discipline.

Bobby co-founded the American Kickboxing Academy Sunnyvale in 2008. In 2015, Southworth began coaching at UFC Gym Hollow Brook in San Antonio, Texas until it closed down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Southworth has a 10-6 record in Mixed Martial Arts and was an original cast member in Season 1 of the The Ultimate Fighter.