Bloody Elbow Radio, presented by Bad Boy, will be LIVE! at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT for another edition of the show. Join hosts Matt Bishop and MMA Mania's Brian Hemminger as they preview Saturday's UFC 146, an all-heavyweight main card which is headlined by a UFC heavyweight championship bout between Junior dos Santos and Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez and Antonio Silva.

Also on the card, Stefan Struve battles Lavar Johnson, Roy Nelson meets Dave Herman and Shane Del Rosario makes his UFC debut against Stipe Miocic.

We'll preview all the fights while taking your calls, emails, tweets and comments.

We'll also preview Friday's Bellator 70, which has its own heavyweight action as Cole Konrad defends his Bellator heavyweight title against Eric Prindle.

We'll be joined by Titan FC president Joe Kelly to preview TItan Fighting 22, which is headlined by a bout between Anthony Johnson and Dave Branch. We'll chat with him about that card and much more.

Bloody Elbow Radio is sponsored by Bad Boy. Get your Alexander Gustafsson UFC on FUEL TV walk out T-shirt only from Bad Boy at BadBoy.com. Follow them on Twitter and Facebook and tell them Bloody Elbow sent you.

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For those calling in, you will first be picked up by our producer who will take your information and get what you want to talk about. You will then be queued. We will try to get to everyone as soon as we can. We ask that you call in around the time of the topic you want to discuss.

SBN coverage of UFC 146: Dos Santos vs. Mir

SBN coverage of Bellator 70

SBN coverage of Titan Fighting Championships 22

This is a guest post by Jim Genia.

It doesn't really matter what Kaream Ellington went to prison for. This story isn't about what he did or didn't do that got him locked up, nor is it a sermon on staying on the right path in life. No, what matters is that he ended up incarcerated, a guest of New York State's correctional system for three years and in that time a resident of Rikers Island, Groveland Correctional Facility and Sing Sing. Plus, there's the fact that when he went in, he was already an accomplished pro MMA fighter.

Kaream is by no means the first fighter to ever land in the clink. Former Extreme Fighting champ Marcus "Conan" Silveira did time for dealing ecstasy, UK folk hero Lee Murray is languishing in a Moroccan slammer, and TUFer Jon Koppenhaver, a.k.a. "War Machine", seems to be wearing orange jumpsuits far more often than civilian clothes lately. But Kaream, who hails from the South Bronx, is the one who knows the New York penal system from the inside, and since he's out now, struggling to find his legs in the outside world - and since he's accessible and willing to talk - his is the story that gets told.

When Kaream began his journey in MMA, the landscape was much different. There were no weekly Bellator events broadcast on MTV2, no seemingly-endless stream of UFCs, and no Ultimate Fighter TV show. There wasn't even a SpikeTV network. Still, he found fights at small shows, tiny sub-regional affairs in Rhode Island, Virginia and New Jersey with names like Rhode Island Vale Tudo, Excalibur Extreme Fight Challenge and BAMA Fight Night. When the national organization International Fighting Championship came to Atlantic City to hold a sizeable event at the Tropicana, Kaream entered their tournament and won handily. Adding to the mix were a few Muay Thai bouts and a purple belt in jiu-jitsu under Carmine Zocchi, and Kaream was well on his way to the "major league". But a couple losses derailed him, and it took a few years and a few bouts in New York City's Underground Combat League - and particularly, a win over future International Fight League heavyweight Bryan Vetell, who outweighed Kaream by over one hundred pounds - to bring the light-heavyweight back into the warm glow of big fights. In Atlantic City, he suplexed and kneed a Japanese PRIDE veteran into a stupor, and was soon flown to Costa Rica and Japan, competing for BodogFIGHTS. He even went to the tryouts for TUF 2 at Renzo Gracie's academy in Manhattan.

It all came apart on the streets of the South Bronx, though, and Kaream was arrested on September 7, 2008, on a weapon charge. He didn't come home until September 2, 2011.

Kaream details his prison experiences after the jump...

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Join us at Bloody Elbow for the UFC 146 pre-fight press conference from the main Lobby of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV. We're expecting Dana White, UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos, Frank Mir, Can Velasquez, and Antonio Silva to be in attendance for today's presser.

You can catch the action on the Youtube stream below the jump, but if that doesn't work for some reason you can always check it out over at MMA Fighting.

We'll update the post with highlights from the press conference as they happen.

Join us at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT to share your thoughts as the press conference unfolds.

Main Card

Junior Dos Santos vs. Frank Mir
Antonio Silva vs. Cain Velasquez
Dave Herman vs. Roy Nelson
Shane Del Rosario vs. Stipe Miocic
Lavar Johnson vs. Stefan Struve

Preliminary Card

Diego Brandao vs. Darren Elkins
Edson Barboza vs. Jamie Varner
C.B. Dollaway vs. Jason Miller
Dan Hardy vs. Duane Ludwig
Paul Sass vs. Jacob Volkmann
Kyle Kingsbury vs. Glover Teixeira
Mike Brown vs. Daniel Pineda

SBN coverage of UFC 146: Dos Santos vs. Mir

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UFC Heavyweight Roy Nelson faces Dave "Pee Wee" Herman on the pay-per-view card of Saturday's UFC 146 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is a card that's already been impacted by performance enhancing drugs when title challenger Alistair Overeem was pulled from the main event after failing a pre-fight urine test for elevated testosterone levels.

Nelson isn't happy with the prevalence of cheating in the sport and wants to do something about it. He's offering to pay out of pocket for random WADA level testing for himself and his next opponent.

Here's what he told MMA Fighting:

"The sport of MMA leaves a sour taste in your mouth. It pays to cheat. I used to be passive about people that cheat. I might have to do WADA. I may even have to pay myself for testing my next opponent. I mean I'll do the blood tests, the whole nine yards. Whoever fights me next will have to do random blood tests, and it can even come out of my pocket if the UFC doesn't want to pay for it. If they don't want to test, it just shows how corrupt this sport is."

Video after the jump...

SBN coverage of UFC 146: Dos Santos vs. Mir

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This is a guest editorial by Stephen Koepfer, founder of the Coalition to Legalize Mixed Martial Arts in New York, and gym owner of New York Combat Sambo. Koepfer and the coalition has been instrumental in the grass roots effort for MMA legalization in New York over the last few years, and yet to this point the coalition has been ignored by Zuffa instead of collaborated with as an ally. The coalition mostly consists of New Yorkers, who live in New York state 24/7 and are the ones most closely effected by the current ban. The opinion in this editorial is that of Koepfer's, and does not necessarily reflect the stance of SBNation - KJ

On June 28, 2002 Lou Neglia promoted Vengeance at the Vanderbilt 14 in Plainview, New York. That show featured the likes of future UFC veteran Pete "Drago" Sell and other fighters who later moved on to fight in the IFC, AFC, MFC, Bodog Fights, and M-1 Global. Neglia's show had the dubious distinction of having been the last sanctioned amateur MMA event held in the state of New York. Since that time New York native Neglia has moved his operation to Atlantic City, New Jersey where he promotes one of the top regional professional MMA shows, Ring of Combat.

In response to an escalating national movement against MMA, New York became the first state to ban professional MMA on January 28, 1997, only months after legalizing it on October 10, 1996. The legislation that banned the sport was sloppily rushed together, and to date is the only time the New York legislature has used an emergency provision to overturn a prior law in less than the required 30 day waiting period. As we all know, state after state followed New York's lead and banned the sport. Since that time in tandem with the sport's maturation, a virtual rewind has occurred as state after state has unbanned and regulated the sport. New York and Connecticut remain the last hold outs among states that have athletic commissions.

If MMA was banned in New York in 1997, how was Neglia able to host Vengeance at the Vanderbilt 14 in 2002? He was able to do it because the hastily crafted law banned professional MMA (and Muay Thai for that matter) but, if overseen by a sanctioning body, allowed for amateur martial arts competition under which amateur MMA falls. However, in 2002 the New York legislature realized its miscalculation; allowing for less regulated amateur MMA to take place while banning the more regulated professional version of the sport. How could they stamp out this horrid atrocity now?! The old dogs in Albany did it by using any means possible to shut down the amateur shows; usually using liquor laws, occupancy laws, or any other means they could muster. Guess what? They succeeded; and in the process set the stage for the meteoric rise of underground & unsanctioned MMA*. There has not been a sanctioned MMA event in New York since Neglia's 2002 show - until May 19, 2012 that is.

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Before we look at what happened on May 19 in the small Buffalo suburb of Tonawanda, let's rewind two weeks to May 7. On that day, the Democratic (majority party) leadership of New York's Assembly held a closed door conference to determine the future of a bill that, if passed, would allow for the lifting of the ban and regulation of professional MMA in New York. The legislation had been blocked by the Assembly's Democratic leadership for the past two years in spite of clear majority support in their own house, as well as passage of the legislation in the Senate. While longtime vocal opponents of MMA such as outgoing Assemblyman Bob Reilly, Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari and Assemblyman Herman D Farrell Jr. have been steadfast in their opposition over the past several years, blame for the bill's consistent failure can be laid squarely at the feet of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Silver has vast influence over Assembly membership and agenda as well as total control over which bills make it the floor for a final vote. As in 2010 and 2011, on May 7 Silver disingenuously squashed any hopes for professional New York MMA in 2012; despite reported majority support in the closed door meeting.

Why are Sheldon Silver and others motivated to subvert the democratic process in order to keep professional MMA banned? Reasons for this have fluctuated during the past 15 years. But, during the past 2 years or so, New York has become a proxy battlefield in an unrelated public war that is sacrificing the whole of the New York MMA community for a few selfish parties. I will revisit that complicated question later.

Continue reading after the jump ...

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Coming off a loss can make or break some athletes when they go into their next fight. Coming off four might drive lesser men to reconsider their career choices. Dan Hardy, one of the nicest, most interesting people I've ever interviewed, has been paired up with the best guys in the welterweight division, but has had a hard time getting over the hurdle. Saturday night, at UFC 146, he plans to get himself back on Victory Road with a win against a very tough striker in Duane Ludwig. I recently had the chance to get an interview with Dan, to get a feel for what he's got lined up for the future.

*Note: This interview is a long one, so I'm splitting it up in two pieces. Be sure to look for Part II tomorrow.

Stephie Daniels: With there only being a few days left until fight time, is it safe to assume the hard training is over and now it's just about maintaining cardio?

Dan Hardy: Yeah, the sessions are a lot shorter now. We're getting them done in 45 minutes, and we're just doing one a day. I'm resting and dieting and getting a lot of stretching in, things like that.

Stephie Daniels: When you talk about stretching, are you on the yoga bandwagon, or is this just a training standard?

Dan Hardy: You know, I got on it for a little while, but I haven't done any for this training camp. That's something I'm going to look to do, maybe when I get into retirement. It's something I definitely want to do. I know Forrest Griffin is there all the time. He loves it.

Stephie Daniels: You mentioned retirement, so I have to ask if that's something you're thinking about.

Dan Hardy: I'm not planning on retiring any time soon. I just like to plan ahead [laughs]. I just want to stay active. I'm thinking about taking up one of the traditional martial arts. I quite like the idea of Kendo. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe I like the idea of hitting people with sticks.

Stephie Daniels: You and Duane have kept things on very friendly terms leading up to your fight. There isn't a hard rivalry or ugly back story, so I'm wondering what your trigger is to be able to go in there and pound on a guy that you call friend.

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