Female mixed martial artist and one fo the stars of NBC’s “American Gladiators,” Erin “Steel” Toughill, was the special guest on the mid-week edition of Monday Night Myhe, histed by The Big Mosh, Blade, and DFL. The show can be hard live and in streaming audio every Monday night (at 8PM ET/7PM CT) exclusively on The Monday Night Mayhem Radio Network.

Here are some highlights from the interview:

Erin is honored to part of the return of the Atlasphere event in American Gladiators and describes the adrenaline rush as “pretty freakin’ crazy.” Erin is proud of how American Gladiators is doing, not just season 1, but the progression of season 2 and credits both the athlestes and great competitors who have tried out, as well as the new Gladiators for “kicking butt and taking names.”

Erin describes Matt Morgan, who wrestled for TNA and now is a gladiator known as “The Beast”, as “a bad ass and larger than life” and says that Matt has done a a great job acclimating himself to being a Gladiator.

Regarding rumors of a potential MMA fight between Erin and her fellow Gladator, Gina “Crush” Carano, Erin says that she would love to see that happen at some point in time. Erin feels her experience would give her an advantage, as she has had nearly 24 professional fights, while Gina has had only 6. “This has been my life. I was doing this before it was popular or cool. With all respect to Gina, I would kick her ass.”

Erin believes that many wrestling fans are jumping ship from being fans of sports entertainment to that of the MMA world. Erin by no means discredits the wrestling world, as she gives all of the credit to those who comete within the WWE, TNA, and the independent promotions around the globe. “It takes an extremely athletically-gifted person to pull a lot of that stuff off.” Erin went on record to say that wrestling is something she might even be interested in competing in sometime in the future, because of the soap-opera and storyline perspectives. Erin states though, the MMA “is as real as it gets.”

Mosh, Blade and DFL asked Erin if she gets more credit for competing in a “real” sport versus that of a predetermined nature. Erin replies that she has been around the world of MMA for a long time. Erin has seen people she has sparred with try to cross over to professional wrestling. The fans will stick to their guns and believe what they want to believe, but as for her, she sholehearedly feels that despite the “predetermined” nature of wrestling, both the men and women involved take some serisous beatings and punishment. Erin then reinforced that she has never turned down the opportunites to get into the squared circle. Right now, Erin’s heart and soul is into the MMA.

When asked about the subject of WWE Divas versus TNA Knockouts, Erin has had more opportunity to watch the TNA product, mainly following Matt’s career and loves what the knockouts can do in the ring. What she likes about TNA vs. WWE is that “their girls are real athlestes,” and that they tend to actually perform, whereas in most capacities the WWE Divas are Playboy models ripping their clothes off.

(thanks to www.MondayNightMayham.com)

For those of you readers who want an inside track into what it takes to start-up, run, and maintain a MMA clothing company The MMA News recommends you read Gary Ibarra’s postings on Graffight Apparel’s website. It’s a compelling and accurate account of the high’s and lows involved in the business of MMA, and it provides genuine insight into how business is done, both inside and outside the confines of the MMA market. I find myself interested not just for the sake of a good read, but to gain insider information on how these business moves are made. Here’s an excerpt from Graffight Apparel’s media kit:

Graffight Apparel® is a mainstream lifestyle apparel company with a strong base in the Mixed Martial Arts Community. Started in January 2008, Graffight has slowly but surely through determination and hard work surfaced as an up and coming group of graphic artists and apparel designers in the mixed martial arts scene. Our goal is to change the way the public views not just mixed martial arts apparel, but the sport of mixed martial arts as a whole.
Attempting to counteract the public’s idea that Mixed Martial Arts is simply a blood sport full of barbarians eager to pummel each other to the screams of blood thirsty fans, Graffight, with our visually stimulating themes and art based designs, focuses on conveying a different message. We believe that Mixed Martial Arts, in its purest form, is the ultimate test of not just strength of body, but strength of mind. A sport that requires determination, strategy, athleticism, dedication and heart, an arena where the sacrifice of seemingly endless training and pure forged will are rewarded with victory and the knowledge that in a test of character, you are the victor.
Graffight’s mission is to take an active role in correcting the misconcieved idea of MMA, with our emphasis on artistic freedom, integrity, and the true essence of Mixed Martial Arts.
Thank you for taking time to become familiar with us here at Graffight and we thank you for your support.

If you are in the audience at UFC 86, you may see the Graffight crew doing some promotional work. Mention you saw this at The MMA News and they’ll toss you a free shirt!! Now that’s a deal.

(Editor’s Note: In dealing with Gary Ibarra via email correspondence I have found him to be personable, expressive, professional and extremely accessible. These are four traits that bode well for Graffight Apparel.)