Beat the Streets Rumble on the Rails stops at Grand Central Terminal in New York City Wednesday, May 15, 2013. Iran and Russia traveled across seas to compete with the United States freestyle wrestling team at the Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Terminal. The competition will be held adjacent to the annual Beat the Streets Awards Gala, following wrestling at the Bryant Park Grill. Obe Blanc earned the honors of being invited to wrestle at the event for the United States.

The Southwest's largest grappling and brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament is just days away. Southwest Grapplefest 9 is this Saturday, May 4th at Cleveland High School in
Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

Competitors still have time to register online, up until Thursday May 2nd 5:00pm, at www.combatsportsclub.com. For those last minute folks late registration is available at weigh-ins Friday night and Saturday morning. Spectator tickets are available online or at the door. Weigh-ins are Friday May 3rd from 5-8:00pm or Saturday morning 8-9:00am both at the venue.

Come see the excitement of submission fighting live, eight matches at a time all day long starting at 10:00

The NCAA Division One Wrestling National Championships at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa, continues to prove each round is worth the price of admission. The tournament is a three day event starting Thursday March 21 and ending Saturday night March 23.

Each match is a must see event experience that only your own eyes can bring to life. Here is a little taste we captured throughout the NCAA tournament.

Des Moines, IA- Three-time national champion of Cornell Kyle Dake seeks the opportunity to win four championships at four different weight classes. Dake moved up this year to 165-pounds and remains undefeated. He entered the tournament with a 34-0 record earning the right to the number one seed.

Des Moines, IA- Alex Dieringer wrestling out of Oklahoma State advances to the semi-finals of the NCAA National Wrestling Championships. The Red-shirt freshman entered the tournament with a sixth seed in the 157-pound weight class. In the semi-finals he will wrestle the number two seed Derek St. John of Iowa.

Dieringer hails from Port Washington, Wisconsin, where he won two Wisconsin state titles in 2007 at 103 and in 2009 at 140, as well as finishing runner-up in 2008 at 125-pounds. He wrestled at Port Washington High school under Head Coach Angelo LaRossa.

In wrestling you hear the phrase “work smarter, not harder”, meaning to complete skills with fundamentally sound technique. A wrestler whom completes moves fundamentally sound will be able to accomplish more, and finish opponents quicker using less energy.

One particular skill that tends to be commonly used where wrestlers seem to struggle when finishing off foes is the cradle. Cradles are a very effective wrestling technique that often only produces near-fall points. When done properly a cradle is an extremely tough move to escape from, and leads to pin-falls ending the match.

After five years hosting successful grappling tournaments, New Mexico based Combat Sports Club presented their first event of 2013, a first ever jiu-jitsu tournament for the “City of Crosses.”

Picacho Middle School was the site of this inaugural combat sports event. More than one hundred Las Cruces area grapplers showed skill and sportsmanship alongside athletes from Albuquerque, Flagstaff, Amarillo, Tucson, Lubbock, Santa Fe, and more.

Perhaps the biggest presence was from El Paso, with eleven teams and many independent grapplers who competed. All told over three hundred competitors attended; the result was a competitive well run tournament that left everyone asking: When’s the next one?

During an exclusive interview with USCS reporter Eric Kowal talks to Marcus "The Irish Hand Grenade" Davis, one of the most exciting fighters to ever fight inside the Octagon.

The respected veteran talks about his gym Team Irish MMA Fitness Academy, cutting weight to the point of near death, and how a misunderstanding of words led to a new beef with British fighter Paul Daley.

"The Irish Hand Grenade" also discusses his bad blood with Dan Hardy, interest in another season of the Ultimate Fighter the Comeback, and the outcome of the rematch between Junior Dos Santos and Cain Velasquez.

As women's MMA continues to make its meteoric rise in the world of televised sports - recently catapulted with the advent of a women's division to UFC, the all female promotion Invicta, will be holding its fourth event.

Gaining international attention with hundreds of thousands of online viewers (over 230,000 for the first, over 300,000 for the 2nd, and an even greater number on the thirrd event), the promotion earned "Story of the Year" on BJPenn.com's 2012 Women's MMA Awards, and the President/CEO of Invicta, Shannon Knapp, earned Best Contribution to Women's MMA.

Carla "Cookie Monster" Esparza (8-2, Team Oyama), one of the nominees for "Who to Look Out for in 2013", will be the main event, facing Bec "Rowdy" Hyatt (4-1 of Impact MMA in Australia) for the inaugural Strawweight Belt at Invicta 4, this Saturday, January 5, 2013, at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, KS.

It was another momentous year across the board for the combative sports world. 2012 saw continued domination from some of the best champions in history, an explosion of local combative sports, and much more. Thanks from all of us at US Combat Sports for supporting the local fight scene. See you in 2013.