Bloody Elbow Radio, presented by Bad Boy, was live Tuesday afternoon to discuss the latest in mixed martial arts. Hosts Matt Bishop, Forrest Lynn and Brian Hemminger took a look at last weekend's Bellator 44 and its relative ratings success, plus we discussed some of the latest fight announcements and fights that fighters want.
We had four exciting guests on the show, none more thrilling than Bloody Elbow's own Michael Fagan. We talked with Fagan about his baby, the Bloody Elbow Tournament of Bad, developed by he and Brent Brookhouse. Voting is ongoing right here on BloodyElbow.com, so check it out!
We were then joined by Bellator light-heavyweight tournament finalist Richard Hale as he prepares to meet Christian M'Pumbu for the Bellator light-heavyweight championship this Saturday at Bellator 45.
We talked with him about his fight with D.J. Linderman and the mistake he made heading into that fight, his thoughts on competing for a world title and how his career has progressed during this tournament. We asked him how his experience fighting three bouts in short order for Bellator compared to doing the same when he was a Rage in the Cage regular.
"I'll be honest, the calibre and the level of the opponents I'm fighting now are definitely much higher, so it's a much different fight. It's a much different recovery and everything else. It's all about being very sharp, making the right decisions and being in tune with yourself, listening to your body and knowing when to say when. You train as hard as you can, but you don't push too hard because that could take it away from you when you get into the fight. The biggest thing I've learned is to listen to my body and go with what works and listen to my coaches. I'll be happy once this is over, get the belt, definitely bring it home and celebrate, it'll be nice, but the tournament style is somewhat crazy. It's a lot of fun but it's definitely a lot of training packed into three months."
Then we spoke with UFC 130's Cole Escovedo as he prepares for his bout with Renan Barao. Escovedo has wanted to get to the big show for a long, long time and will finally get his chance in Las Vegas next weekend. Escovedo teased something he has planned for the event and also let us in on a nickname some of his friends have for him after seeing his fight with Yoshiro Maeda last year.
Escovedo has been thinking a lot about what it's going to be like when he finally gets to live the UFC experience.
"I've been thinking about all that stuff. I've been thinking about how big my smile's going to be when they announce my name for the first time. I've already come up with some cool ideas for the weigh-in and the walk out that I'm going to implement. It should be the first time anybody's ever done it, so I expect to do some new things for the UFC."
We also spoke extensively about the UFC Fighter Summit with Escovedo and he gave us some great details about what it was like there from the perspective of a fighter.
Finally we were joined by Matthew Roth of Head Kick Legend to discuss this past weekend's It's Showtime card that featured Badr Hari.
Bloody Elbow Radio returns at 4 p.m. ET Thursday with Bellator featherweight tournament finalist Daniel Straus.
Bloody Elbow Radio is sponsored by Bad Boy. Bad Boy, the 2010 World MMA Awards winner for "Best Technical Clothing Brand," can be found at BadBoyMMA.com. Follow them on Twitter and Facebook and tell them Bloody Elbow sent you.
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Bellator 45 coverage