Bloody Elbow Radio: Mike Brown, Kevin Iole, and More

This week marked the debut of Bloody Elbow Radio, our new podcast. We plan on doing the show twice a week, on Thursdays at 4 PM EST and immediately following any event of note. Thanks for all your great feedback. Make sure you check us out Saturday after the Strikeforce show on Showtime to discuss the exciting new Heavyweight Grand Prix.

It's never too late to check out our first show either.

Direct link: episode-1-strikeforcem-1-global-fedor-vs-silva-preview.mp3

Or check it out at Blog Talk Radio:

Our first two guests, former WEC champ Mike Brown and Yahoo's Kevin Iole were both great.

Mike Brown on his relationship with the fans:

Some people are front runners. They love whoever's the champ. Whoever is just beating the hell out of everybody. But it's cool when you have a bunch of losses and you read the forums and see people going 'I don't care man, he's still one of me and my friend's favorite fighters.' And I don't even know the guys. That's cool man. I've lost four out of six and this guy still really likes me as a fighter.

...It's funny you know. Sometimes people will freak out. You see all types. Some people will kind of elbow each other and kind of look at you. 'Hey, hey, there's that guy. Mike Brown. Look.' But some people will come up and go 'Holy sh*t, oh my god, it's f*cking you, you're right here.' That's pretty neat. I've been in Wal Mart and a little kid was jumping up and down like I'm a cartoon character or something. It's pretty neat.

Kevin Iole on Yushin Okami's missed opportunity:

"I think there's more interesting fights for Anderson Silva at 205 pounds, I don't think there's any question about that. But Anderson does not want to move and he's pretty adamant that he's not going to move and given the fact he's the champion at 185 and he can make the weight, I think it's very hard for the UFC to force him to go if he doesn't want to. I'm in favor of the fight. I feel badly on a personal level for Yushin Okami, but on a professional level, I feel zero for him because Yushin Okami is not an exciting fighter, number one. I don't say that to denigrate him at all, but it's not like he's been on some sort of huge roll. He lost to Chael Sonnen not that long ago. He's had some good wins, but this is a business. Is there anybody that's going to sit there and say Yushin Okami is more of a threat to beat Anderson Silva than Georges St. Pierre? I just don't see that being the case. If it was a totally undeserved guy getting the shot ahead of him, then I'd say, 'OK, he has an argument,' or if you're bringing in someone from outside the UFC, Jorge Santiago, who's a good fighter. You bring him in and say, 'we're putting him in with Anderson Silva ahead of Yushin Okami,' then I think Yushin Okami and his fans have a complaint. But you're putting in a guy who is, at the very worst, is No. 3 pound-for-pound in the world, a guy that hasn't lost in eight consecutive fights, a guy who has won every round of those fights. It's pretty hard to make an argument unless you're a diehard Okami fan and a anti-St. Pierre fan that Okami's getting screwed. I think it's part of the business. Part of the business is making it so people want to see you. Different people do it in different ways and Yushin hasn't connected with the fans with his personality, he doesn't speak English very well if at all and his fights haven't been exciting. ... You have to, as a professional athlete, make a case for yourself. That's why some people make more money than others. In Yushin's case, he's going to have to take a backseat. The timing's bad for him."

The guys also took a look at the Strikeforce Grand Prix and we debuted the "Subo versus Snowden" segment to wild enthusiasm. We look forward to growing and getting better each week. Feel free to leave critiques in the comments.