UNCASVILLE, Conn. – Raufeon Stots had a pretty good idea of how he’d bid farewell – for now – to his rivalry with Danny Sabatello if he won at Bellator 289.
Win, Stots did, in the main event at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. But the result, a split decision, may be debated by some people for a while.
Stots (19-1 MMA, 7-0 BMMA) beat Sabatello (13-2 MMA, 3-1 BMMA) with a pair of 48-47 scores to not only defend his interim bantamweight title, but move into the grand prix final. A third judge scored all five rounds for Sabatello, who had more than 10 minutes of ground control time in the fight.
Stots said the amount of trash talk and beef that had built up between the two of them for the past nearly half-year made the win a little more gratifying – and is what led to him getting on the microphone in the cage to drop one final F-bomb in Sabatello’s direction while he left the arena floor.
“I’m satisfied I got the win, but I wanted to get that motherf*cker out of there,” Stots told MMA Junkie after the fight. “I wanted to cause a little more damage. I definitely got to see the look I was looking for – like, he wasn’t ready for the pain that I was going to bring him. So yeah, I guess that was the most satisfying (win of my career), given the talk … I’m glad to be the one to shut him up for a little bit. I feel like if I would have finished him, it would have shut his mouth for a longer time. But he’s going to be mad, and I can sleep well at night knowing that.”
Stots moved on to the bantamweight tournament final, which Bellator president Scott Coker said likely will take place the first quarter of 2023. He’ll meet Patchy Mix (17-1 MMA, 6-1 BMMA), who choked out Magomed Magomedov (19-3 MMA, 3-2 BMMA) in the other Friday semifinal fight.
The tournament winner will get $1 million – and also will move on to a bantamweight title unification fight with champ Sergio Pettis, who has been out rehabbing after knee surgery. Stots and Pettis are former teammates who trained together at Roufusport in Milwaukee.
Stots said the matchup with Mix is one he’s excited about given Mix’s recent resume with a win over ex-champ Kyoji Horiguchi and his Friday finish of Magomedov.
“I’m looking forward to that fight, actually, because he’s proven himself to be among the greats,” Stots said. “He beat Horiguchi. He beat Magomed, who I also have a win over. I would say he’s deserving of the spot, and I’m actually looking forward to putting my fist through that gap in his teeth.”
Check out Stots’ full post-fight interview in the video above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 289.
