Emanuel Newton defended his Bellator light heavyweight championship for the first time this past weekend against Joey Beltran. The bout saw Newton win via a highlight reel spinning backfist KO in the third round, much similar to the one used against King Mo last year.
Prior to the KO, Newton was looking tired, and some of his punches were being thrown without much power behind them, something many fans noticed, and something Newton felt.
He spoke to MMAMania after the bout saying:
“I did something very stupid. I didn’t eat today. I had a 30 For Life shake, which is only about 100 calories. I wanted to try something new. I knew for sure I was the better fighter. I knew he was going to push forward. I definitely started feeling it after that… Especially going into the second round. I knew when I landed a spinning backfist on him and it had no oomph on it, I was like ‘uh oh, uh oh.’”
“I hit him with some good shots in the first round and he smiled at me and just get coming. I was like ‘okay.’ He definitely was game and ready for this fight.”
“I threw the backfist a few times going forward and I missed him. I said ‘okay, I’m going to wait ’til he comes forward and look to throw it’. I timed it and when he was putting pressure on me, I landed it.”
“I’m a big believer in energy and once I hit him it felt like his soul went into another dimension for a minute. I knew he was down so I wasn’t going to keep punching the man. ‘Okay ref, he’s not getting up,’ and that was it.”