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MMA Record Holder & The Home Made Joust Friday, August 01 2008

Mixed martial artists continue to branch out to other opportunities both on television and in athletics. Just ask the latest MMA fighter to step into a new competitive arena, which is Arizona Combat Sports fighter Aaron Simpson, who was featured on the current season of “American Gladiators” on NBC. Simpson was an assistant coach at Arizona State University training alongside future MMA standouts such as Cain Velasquez, C.B. Dollaway and Ryan Bader.

Currently, Simpson sports a 2-0 record in professional MMA. He tried his best to make his mark in the American Gladiators competition this season along with his wife, Kendra Sirignano who was a combatant in the women’s division. Unfortunately, neither husband or wife made it to the semi-finals rounds of the show. Since leaving Arizona State, Simpson has continued to coach wrestling while working with his former students at the Arizona Combat Sports team with head trainers Todd and Trevor Lally.

Contestant Adriana Posadas took a ride on the ‘Gladiator’ treadmill. She trained for ‘American Gladiator’ in part with a home-made jousting stick her husband made for her. So how’d she do on the real-life joust when it came time to battle the professional gladiators? Matched up against competitor Tatum Yount, niece of Hall of Fame baseball player Robin Yount, Posadas looked poised for a victory, racking up point after point in the preliminary rounds while Yount scored a big fat zero.

That gave Posadas a few seconds head start in the final event, the Eliminator, but she slipped out of the blocks and lost her lead almost immediately. Still, as she and Yount reached the final portion of the obstacle course, an uphill treadmill called the Travel-ator, Posadas still had time to squeeze into the Top Six and advance in the show. Until she fell. And fell again. And again. So close, but in the end, she and Yount, who finally made it up the treadmill, were too slow to make it into the semi-finals round.