‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey recently defeated Konusuke Takeshita to win the 2023 PWG Battle of Los Angeles tournament at the Globe Theatre.
While speaking to Sports Illustrated, Bailey discussed his “unreal” victory at Sunday’s event.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On the significance of the tournament: “PWG is the place where you go to become a star. If you look at their history, the best wrestlers in the world have all been there. It’s completely out-of-this-world talent. My favorite part of this year’s BOLA was the diversity among all the people competing. Backstage, there were so many languages being spoken that it became extremely confusing. I started speaking Japanese to Bandido because we were all so mixed up.”
On pacing himself during the tournament: “I went over 15 minutes with Jordynne Grace—after that, I was thinking, ‘I have three more of these?’ At that moment, it felt insurmountable. But it was a lot like when I competed in taekwondo tournaments. You’d start at nine in the morning, you’d be there all day, and you didn’t know how much time there would be between fights.
“The hardest part for me is always cooling down. Luckily, there wasn’t much time between my semifinal match and the finals. Before the semis, I got to cool down, rest and relax, but then I warmed up and I could feel all the damage from the first two fights. So I knew I couldn’t cool down or lose focus for a second because I needed to keep my adrenaline.”
On the finals against Konosuke Takeshita: “Right before the end of the finals, when we went to the outside and I did that one last springboard moonsault onto Takeshita, I remember feeling a great sense of relief. We still had the most difficult part left, but I just felt unreal. It was a truly amazing feeling.”
On his 2023 goal: “My goal last year was to become known as a must-see performer in the U.S. This year, my goal is to surpass the previous years.”
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