During this past Wednesday’s edition of “The MMA Report Podcast,” Jason Floyd was joined by Mike Hennessy, who narrated the MMA book “History of MMA: From Rome to Today.” During Hennessy’s interview on the weekly podcast, he talked about President Teddy Roosevelt’s involvement in MMA.
“There are stories of him possible having sumo wrestlers parading around the White House at some time,” Hennessy said on The MMA Report Podcast. “But you have to put that in context because Teddy Roosevelt lived in a time where it really wasn’t that hard to assassinate a President if you wanted too. They just didn’t have the level of security that they have now. He actually made a speech one time where someone shot him. He shook off the bullet wound, finished his speech and said now I guess I can go get treated. Takes more than that he said to kill a bull moose.”
“Anyway, he was very interested in this and partly because he was always interested in vigorous physical activity which boxing counts as,” he continued. “But he also though what if someone comes after me again and I have to take care of business myself. What would I do? He was very interested in the idea of saying ok — he had seen boxing and knew that boxing would be good for one type of encounter, but what happens if you have to grapple in close quarters. Which is near and dear in the hearts of every MMA fan.”
Check out Hennessy’s complete interview from Wednesday’s edition of “The MMA Report Podcast” below and be sure to subscribe to the show on iTunes and Stitcher.
Saleh Steven’s book “History of MMA: From Rome to Today” is available via Amazon.