Gaston Bolanos breaks down nasty spinning back elbow that stole the show at Bellator 189

THACKERVILLE, Okla. – In an action-packed MMA weekend, Gaston Bolanos made sure to add his name to the highlight reel thanks to his signature elbow of doom.

After returning to the win column in a major way with his first-round starching of Rick Gutierrez (0-1 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) at Friday’s Bellator 189 event, Bolanos (2-1 MMA, 2-1 BMMA) broke down the lead-up to the nasty spinning back elbow that, counting muay Thai fights, he believes has now knocked out seven opponents.

“I assumed he was going to either try to take me down right away from the start, or he was going to try to bum-rush me like he did,” Bolanos told MMAjunkie after the preliminary-card bout at WinStar World Casino & Resort in Thackerville, Okla. “As soon as the first clinch ended and I kind of composed myself, I felt like I got control of it. Then after that, I started finding my rhythm, I started being myself again. And that’s when – after that head kick, boom, he threw the jab. I saw the jab coming, I kind of slipped. … That spinning back elbow happened, and that’s all she wrote.”

Here’s the finish (via Twitter):

Friday’s catchweight meeting involved a shorter camp for Bolanos, who’s now recovered from a submission loss to Brandon Laroco at Bellator 183 in September. But, clearly, it was quite a productive one.

“There are a lot of things that I was trying to do, that I was trying to change that weren’t really working out for me,” Bolanos said. “We just went back to being myself again. And that’s something we did a lot in this camp.”

Considering that Bolanos is fighting for a world title in muay Thai in two weeks, coming out unscathed after less than 80 seconds of cage time is certainly a welcome outcome.

But what if things hadn’t gone so smoothly?

“Big risk, big reward,” Bolanos said. “Here we go. Let’s go for the second one.”

To hear more from Bolanos, check out the video above.

And for more on Bellator 189, check out the MMA Events section of the site.