5thRound.com’s Exclusive Interview with Paul Bradley

Paul Bradley’s become a hot topic over the past week in the world of MMA. First, with his departure from “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series, due to a skin condition that was out of his control. Then, his signing with EliteXC prior to the seventh season of “The Ultimate Fighter” even airing. Well, we promised to bring fans closer to the sport and provide the news and information that you want, so 5thRound.com setup an exclusive interview with Paul Bradley so you can hear his side of the story.

*A quick note before the interview, we’ll have the audio version of it up shortly. For now, enjoy the fully transcribed version.

Tim Ngo: This is Tim Ngo of 5thRound.com and I’m speaking with Paul Bradley, formerly of “The Ultimate Fighter” and now with EliteXC. Paul, I wanted to thank you for talking with us. For those who don’t know who you are, can you tell us a little about how you got into MMA?

Paul Bradley: Yeah I kinda just got done with wrestling in college and I had always followed it while I was in college. I went down to the Miletich camp right after probably me senior year and just started to kinda get into it a little bit there, just kinda fooling around with it. From there I just fell in love with it.

Tim Ngo: How do you think your past in wrestling has equipped you for Mixed Martial Arts?

Paul Bradley: I think it’s a huge advantage just in the ways of knowing what positions and being able to feel submissions coming and stuff like that. That’s the stuff you learn from wrestling. You learn so much just on positioning, because you feel where a guy’s going and its pretty much the same with fighting. You can feel when a guy’s going for a submission just by the way his body’s moving.

Tim Ngo: Alright, you know we have to ask you about “The Ultimate Fighter”, can you tell us about your skin condition?

Paul Bradley: The Ultimate Fighter was pretty much right on. What sucks about it is it’s just like something I got while I was wrestling in college. It’s really common in college wrestling. I think its herpes [gladiatorum], but its real common. You see it in a lot of wrestlers and judo guys and its just something wrestling in the gym while in Iowa from day-to-day, that I picked up somewhere. It sucks you know because it’s kinda my own fault cause when I went on the show [The Ultimate Fighter], I hadn’t had an outbreak since like college so I didn’t even think about grabbing any medicine for it. Then all of the sudden [with] the stress and not knowing that I was fighting right away, this and that, I put a lot of stress on my body cutting the weight 2 days in a row and I think it just decided to come out then. It kinda sucked, but what are you gonna do?

Tim Ngo: I read on an interview with MMAJunkie that with the proper meds, the skin condition can be controlled. Were you aware of this prior to your stint on “The Ultimate Fighter”? And if so, was there any way that you could’ve controlled it without it even being an issue?

Paul Bradley: Yeah you know what actually after I fought that night, I could actually feel it coming and usually when I have my medication you pop a pill and you know it’ll just suppress it. What sucked is I could actually feel it coming up that night and I tried to get to the doctor as soon as I could, but I guess they couldn’t put a huge rush on it apparently. I was just like, ‘I need to get this medicine, I need to get this medicine,’ and by the next day it had come out and that’s when I finally got to the doctor and like on the show you saw me telling the team after I went to the doctor that, ‘yeah I just need you know 2 days, 3 days on it and it won’t be contagious,’ which sucks because I didn’t even get my 2 or 3 days for it [the medicine] to kick in. I understand where Dana [White] is coming from, but at the same time it kinda sucked because I just know from college wrestling that as long as you’re on medication for 48 hours, it pretty much not contagious because you just have to wait for the meds to kick in.

Tim Ngo: We actually talked about that on our radio show that they didn’t show a second opinion, because normally when something happens in terms of health wise they get a second opinion. So you did actually go to a doctor, but they just didn’t air that?

Paul Bradley: Yeah I went to the doctor in the morning and he actually said exactly what I was expecting him to say. Two days on the meds and you’re cleared, but then like I said on another interview, Dana brought in a close personal friend that looked at me and I think it kind of freaked him out when he was saying that I could spread it. What the guy wasn’t telling Dana was on medication after 2 days, you’re not contagious you just need 48 hours for the medication to kick into your system to suppress it and bring it back down. That’s something that the doctor didn’t say on the show to Dana and I think it kind of freaked him out. The first doctor in the morning, I had dealt with him before when I was in college so I didn’t think much of it but I think that’s just the way things go sometimes.

Tim Ngo: Now that you’ve had some time to reflect and given some other opportunities, how do you feel about everything that transpired on “The Ultimate Fighter”?

Paul Bradley: You know what, I’m not even angry at all. Actually the support that I’ve been getting from people is unreal. I would’ve never expected [it], I’ve been getting e-mails you know. A ton of them on MySpace especially, just from people from all over the place saying they’ve never felt so bad seeing a guy get kicked off and they know about the condition. I’m not trying to say that it’s nothing because its something that you can get for good, but at the same time people know that as long as your on medication for the certain period of time you’re not going to give it to anybody. The support I’ve been getting from people is unreal and I’m very pleased that people are actually thinking about me and I think that’s real cool.

Tim Ngo: Do you think you’ll be extra motivated in your future fights to prove a point that they, being the UFC, let you go?

Paul Bradley: Yeah definitely. I mean like I said, nothing against them but my next point is to prove that I’m one of the best fighters in the world and by going to EliteXC I plan on just working my way up the ladder like everyone else and from there getting better and better as I’m looking to possibly move to another camp and just train full-time. I’m just excited to be able to compete for EliteXC and show them that they made a good choice with me.

Tim Ngo: We all know now that you’ve signed with EliteXC, how did that all come about?

Paul Bradley: It’s kind of a funny story. Once I got kicked off “The Ultimate Fighter”, I was only there I want to say 7-8 days. Once they kicked me off they cut my contract like the rest of the other 16 guys who lost. From there my manager and I didn’t have any place to go and didn’t have any place to fight, so we started looking for possible companies to sign with and we sent out a bunch of e-mails to these different companies, EliteXC being one of them. My manager just by accident sent one to Joe Silva (UFC Matchmaker) and Joe Silva actually called us and was like, ‘what’s Paul doing? He can’t be doing this,’ and this and that. My manager actually had to tell Joe Silva that he got his contract cut so from there I actually was already in talks with EliteXC but they wanted me to beat another sound opponent, a tough guy. So I went ahead and I fought down in Florida on March 15th and beat DJ Watkins out of Alabama I think in like 2 minutes by TKO. I believe that the time he was 10-0 so after I beat him we were pretty much signing the papers in like I want to say the next 5 days later or so. It turned out good.

Tim Ngo: I’ve read that you’re on a three-fight non-exclusive contract with EliteXC, has any other organizations attempted to sign you to a fight?

Paul Bradley: No not really actually. Other than just smaller shows like the Destiny Fight that I had, they’d like me to come down and fight for them again. I know there’s one in New Jersey that I’ve looked at that could possibly work if I don’t fight on EliteXC card in June. Then we were actually in talks about having me fight in Australia at 205 (pounds) against a former UFC vet, I can’t remember his name at this time but I know like at 205 the guy was like pretty big. Actually I’m only weighing about 96-97 (196-197 pounds), so I would’ve been giving up weight to go to 205, and then if he’s cutting down we just started thinking that 205 probably isn’t in the ball range for me anymore.

Tim Ngo: Is anything finalized in terms of when you’re first fight for EliteXC may be?

Paul Bradley: Actually like I said, I’m hoping to get on that June card but nothing’s even finalized yet. We’re just looking for opponents right now, but you’d know just as much as I would I guess. I have no idea as of right now.

Tim Ngo: You mentioned a training camp earlier, what training camp were you planning to go out to?

Paul Bradley: It’s actually one in Cocoa Beach, Florida. I’m not sure of the exact name, but it used to be the Miletich affiliate. I’ve been in talks with them about possibly coming down there living and training full-time. I mean because I train out of Buffalo right now, which its okay I mean the boxing’s great here. I go to a pretty good Jiu-Jitsu school but overall the MMA programs around here, it’s hard to find real tough guys to train with. I actually train with Lance Evans quite a bit out here because he’s Rashad Evans’ brother. Just because he’s one of them guys who knows. He’s always in New Mexico (with Greg Jackson) and stuff so he’s always coming up with different workouts to put me through before a fight. You know I love Buffalo, but at the same time I just wish MMA was a lot bigger here. I guess it doesn’t help that its illegal here in New York still.

Tim Ngo: Are there any final things you want to say before we let you go?

Paul Bradley: Yeah, I just want to say thanks to all the people who are out there supporting me after the last show. Actually a lot of people in Buffalo, I didn’t even know that that many people watched the show but people recognize me when they see me out and about. They’ve been very kind and as well as people around the nation, I guess I can say the world because I’ve gotten a few messages from people overseas, but I think its just really cool how people are supporting me. I’m really happy to see that and I’m very thankful.

Once again we’d like to thank Paul Bradley for taking this interview with us, and we wish him luck in the future and we’ll be talking to him again soon.