Tag: Bellator 289

Raufeon Stots: Danny Sabatello’s whole game is a facade, probably ‘most one-dimensional fighter’ in Bellator

“He’s probably the most one-dimensional fighter that Bellator has but he does a good job of making people forget that.”

[autotag]Raufeon Stots[/autotag] thinks [autotag]Danny Sabatello[/autotag] has nothing to offer but wrestling.

Interim bantamweight champion Stots meets Sabatello in Friday’s Bellator 289 main event at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The main card airs on Showtime following prelims on MMA Junkie.

Stots (18-1 MMA, 6-0 BMMA) thinks Sabatello (13-1 MMA, 3-0 BMMA) has done a good job of marketing himself, but doesn’t see any threat from him outside of his wrestling.

“The dude is literally a wrestler and his whole game is a facade – even the way he talks,” Stots told MMA Junkie Radio. “He’s probably the most one-dimensional fighter that Bellator has, but he does a good job of making people forget that. That’s his whole facade, is like, ‘I’m coming here to crush this guy. I want to hate this guy,’ but then you’re going to go in there and you’re going to cuddle somebody’s goddamn legs the whole f*cking five rounds.

“That’s what you’re going to do. I know that’s all he’s doing, so he don’t rank very high for me. I think he’s one of the easiest opponents I’m going to have to date just because you don’t see very many one-dimensional fighters. He’s a smart one-dimensional fighter, but he’s still a one-dimensional fighter.”

There’s no shortage of bad blood between both fighters. Sabatello thinks he’s in Stots’ head, but Stots is using all the trash talk to fuel him. He is relishing the opportunity to get his hands on Sabatello and sees double incentive in beating him in Bellator’s grand prix semifinals.

“This is amazing for me,” Stots said. “Not only do I get to talk sh*t and clown on this dude that I don’t like, but also I get to be the one who shuts his mouth, which is extra motivation.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 289.

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Spinning Back Clique: James Krause betting scandal, UFC Orlando, Nate Diaz-Jake Paul, more

Join us for this week’s live stream of “Spinning Back Clique” looking at the biggest news and topics in MMA.

Check out this week’s “Spinning Back Clique,” MMA Junkie’s weekly live show that takes a spin through the biggest topics in mixed martial arts. This week’s panel of Brian “Goze” Garcia, Nolan King and Danny Segura will join host “Gorgeous” George Garcia live at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) to discuss and debate:

  • UFC on ESPN 42 in Orlando, Fla., featured nine stoppages in 14 fights and a main event that had people talking about a potential Fight of the Year. With a couple days to reflect, was [autotag]Stephen Thompson[/autotag]’s TKO win over [autotag]Kevin Holland[/autotag] in the main event really that level of greatness? And what are our other takeaways from a memorable event?
  • The you-know-what continues to hit the proverbial fan in the MMA betting scandal involving former UFC standout [autotag]James Krause[/autotag]. The UFC now has said anyone who continues to train with Krause or at his gym can consider themselves gone from the UFC while government investigations are going on. What could the potential fallout be from all this down the road?
  • [autotag]Nate Diaz[/autotag] officially is out from his UFC contract and a free agent. We used to get excited thinking about potential Diaz fights outside the UFC. Now that we’re here, are we amped up about, say, a Diaz boxing match against [autotag]Jake Paul[/autotag]?
  • UFC bantamweight champion [autotag]Aljamain Sterling[/autotag] said on his podcast that former two-division champ and Olympic gold medalist [autotag]Henry Cejudo[/autotag] will be his next title defense, likely in March. Cejudo is coming out of retirement and straight into a title shot, if that’s the case. Is that right? And what do we think about [autotag]Sean O’Malley[/autotag]’s status in the division now?
  • Bellator continues its bantamweight grand prix this week with the semifinals: interim champ [autotag]Raufeon Stots[/autotag] takes on [autotag]Danny Sabatello[/autotag] and [autotag]Patchy Mix[/autotag] meets [autotag]Magomed Magomedov[/autotag]. The Stots-Sabatello fight comes with a particular amount of hype and beef between the two. Who are we picking to reach the final, and what are our thoughts in general about Bellator’s regular grand prix tournaments?

“Spinning Back Clique” is released each Monday LIVE on MMA Junkie’s YouTube channel. You can watch this week’s episode in the video above.

Liz Carmouche plans to leave no doubt in Bellator 289 rematch vs. Juliana Velasquez: ‘It’s personal’

Liz Carmouche says Juliana Velasquez acted poor after their first fight and will ensure there’s “not a doubt” in the Bellator 289 rematch.

[autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag] is still bothered by the way her first fight with [autotag]Juliana Velasquez[/autotag] unfolded and plans to disqualify any controversy from the narrative at Bellator 289.

Carmouche (17-7 MMA, 4-0 BMMA) will put her Bellator women’s flyweight title on the in the co-headliner of the event, when she rematches Velasquez (12-1 MMA, 7-1 BMMA) for the title at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The main card airs on Showtime following prelims on MMA Junkie.

The title changed hands in April, when Carmouche managed to put Velasquez on the ground in the second round and advance into a dominant position where she rattled off a series of strikes that stunned her opponent. Referee Mike Beltran stepped in to wave it off, and immediately Velasquez protested the stoppage that ended her title reign.

In the aftermath of the event, Velasquez lobbied to have the fight overturned, but the commission denied her appeal. A rematch was then set, and Carmouche enters convinced that she already has one clear-cut win over the Brazilian in her pocket.

“I still stand by that I feel the right call was made,” Carmouche told MMA Junkie. “I’ve now seen different angles of the fight where I elbow her in the face. She doesn’t bridge, she doesn’t move her arms. She stares up at the sky and zones out. That, to me, is a fighter that’s no longer in her body. You can be what’s called flash knocked out. You can still have your eyes open and be concussed and have no recollection of the fight, have brain damage.”

Although Carmouche initially said she wasn’t keen on running it back, she’s become warm to the idea over time. She thinks that Velasquez’s reaction to the defeat and complaint over the finish took something away from what should’ve been a special moment in her career, and that has rubbed Carmouche the wrong way.

“It’s personal,” Carmouche said. “What should’ve been this wonderful moment that I was working toward for so many years, it kind of lost some of its luster because of the claims and because of her demeanor, behavior and how she carried herself after the fight.”

The opportunity for a rematch has upside for Carmouche, too in that she can put arguably her toughest matchup in the 125-pound division behind her on the back burner for the foreseeable future with another win over Velsquez.

That’s the mentality Carmouche enters Bellator 289 with, she said, and her goal is to put an exclamation point on Velasquez this time around.

“It’s definitely a lot more motivation,” Carmouche said. “Make sure that there’s not a doubt in her mind or anyone else’s that I put her away in such a fashion that she doesn’t need to open her mouth again.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 289.

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VIDEO: Raufeon Stots, Danny Sabatello get Bellator 289 trash talk started early in Chicago

It didn’t take long for Raufeon Stots and Danny Sabatello to find themselves in one of the most heated rivalries in Bellator history.

CHICAGO – It didn’t take long for [autotag]Raufeon Stots[/autotag] and [autotag]Danny Sabatello[/autotag] to find themselves in one of the most heated rivalries in Bellator history.

Interim bantamweight champion Stots (18-1 MMA, 6-0 BMMA) meets Sabatello (13-1 MMA, 3-0 BMMA) on Dec. 9 in the Bellator 289 main event at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.

Their fight is one of two semifinals in the ongoing bantamweight grand prix. Patchy Mix takes on Magomed Magomedov on the other side of the bracket, and the winners will fight in the final sometime in 2023 to wrap up the $1 million tournament.

Sabatello’s level of trash talk and bravado is at a rare level, and Stots’ level isn’t far behind, at least while engaging with Sabatello.

This past Friday at Bellator 288, the two got into the cage for a faceoff to promote their headliner, now less than three weeks away. But before that, they met the media backstage at Wintrust Arena in Chicago.

All MMA Junkie had to do was essentially give them a shot to go off on each other without so much as a real question. Check out their heated exchanges, as well as a a faceoff, in the video above.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 289.

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Four fights added to Bellator 289, including return of Dalton Rosta

Bellator 289 takes place Dec. 9 and is headlined by two title fights, including the Danny Sabatello vs. Raufeon Stots grudge match.

Bellator has added four new fights to its final event of 2022.

Scheduled for Dec. 9 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., Bellator 289 already featured two bantamweight grand prix fights and a women’s flyweight title fight. Now, its undercard is filling up, too.

Most notably, a middleweight bout between rising contender [autotag]Dalton Rosta[/autotag] (7-0 MMA, 7-0 BMMA) and [autotag]Anthony Adams[/autotag] (9-2 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) will take place.

Rosta, 26, is undefeated as a professional. In his most recent outing, Rosta dominated blue-chip wrestling prospect Romero Cotton en route to a third-round knockout. Meanwhile, Adams upset former UFC fighter Khalid Murtazaliev via unanimous decision in his Bellator debut in September 2021 and has not competed since.

A promotion official recently notified MMA Junkie of the addition, as well as [autotag]Chris Gonzalez[/autotag] (7-2 MMA, 6-2 BMMA) vs. [autotag]Shamil Nikaev[/autotag] (10-0 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) at lightweight, [autotag]Cass Bell[/autotag] (5-2 MMA, 5-2 BMMA) vs. [autotag]Jared Scoggins[/autotag] (10-2 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) at bantamweight, and [autotag]Kevin Boehm[/autotag] (9-5 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) vs. [autotag]Kai Kamaka[/autotag] (9-5-1 MMA, 3-1 BMMA).

The Boehm vs. Kamaka bout was first reported by BellatorZone.

With the additions, the Bellator 289 lineup includes:

  • Champion Raufeon Stots vs. Danny Sabatello – bantamweight grand prix semifinal for interim title
  • Champion Liz Carmouche vs. Juliana Velasquez – for women’s flyweight title
  • Magomed Magomedov vs. Patchy Mix – bantamweight grand prix semifinal
  • Anthony Adams vs. Dalton Rosta
  • Chris Gonzalez vs. Shamil Nikaev
  • Cody Law vs. Cris Lencioni
  • Cass Bell vs. Jared Scoggings
  • Mark Lemminger vs. Michael Lombardo
  • Kevin Boehm vs. Kai Kamaka
  • Theo Haig vs. Kareem Kline

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Cris Lencioni returns, meets Cody Law at Bellator 289 in December

After three fights outside the promotion this year, Cris Lencioni will return to Bellator in December.

After three fights outside the promotion this year, [autotag]Cris Lencioni[/autotag] will return to Bellator in December.

Lencioni (9-3 MMA, 4-2 BMMA) has signed a new multifight deal with the promotion and will take on [autotag]Cody Law[/autotag] (6-1 MMA, 6-1 BMMA) in a featherweight bout at Bellator 289. A promotion official confirmed the matchup to MMA Junkie on Wednesday.

Bellator 289 is set for Dec. 9 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The main card will air on Showtime following prelims on MMA Junkie. The card features a women’s flyweight title fight between new champion Liz Carmouche and former champ Juliana Velasquez, plus a pair of bantamweight tournament semifinals that include interim champ Raufeon Stots vs. Danny Sabatello.

In addition, a welterweight fight between [autotag]Mark Lemminger[/autotag] (12-5 MMA, 2-4 BMMA) and [autotag]Michael Lombardo[/autotag] (12-3 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) has been added to the lineup.

Lencioni most recently fought for Bellator in August 2020, when he took a unanimous decision from A.J. Agazarm. After that, he competed in many grappling tournaments, then returned to MMA in February with a loss to recent UFC signee Don Shainis. But he bounced back after that with a decision over Drako Rodriguez in April and, most recently, a submission of Talon Hoffman on the regional circuit in August.

Law started his career a perfect 6-0 with five stoppage wins before he was upset by James Gonzalez in June at Bellator 282. The American Top Team-trained wrestling standout will be looking to get back on track against Lencioni.

With the addition, the Bellator 289 lineup now includes:

  • Interim champ Raufeon Stots vs. Danny Sabatello – for interim bantamweight title; bantamweight grand prix semifinal
  • Champ Liz Carmouche vs. Juliana Velasquez – for women’s flyweight title
  • Magomed Magomedov vs. Patchy Mix – bantamweight grand prix semifinal
  • Cody Law vs. Cris Lencioni
  • Mark Lemminger vs. Michael Lombardo

Liz Carmouche vs. Juliana Velasquez title rematch set for Bellator 289

Juliana Velasquez may not have gotten exactly what she was looking for after she lost her Bellator title, but she got the next best thing.

[autotag]Juliana Velasquez[/autotag] may not have gotten exactly what she was looking for after she lost her Bellator title, but she got the next best thing.

Velasquez (12-1 MMA, 7-1 BMMA) lost the women’s flyweight title to [autotag]Liz Carmouche[/autotag] (16-7 MMA, 4-0 BMMA) at Bellator 278 in April in Honolulu. Carmouche rallied to finish Velasquez with a fourth-round TKO.

Velasquez protested the stoppage and even went so far as to press the result to be overturned. That didn’t happen, but at least she’ll get a chance to win the belt back in a rematch.

Carmouche will defend the title against Velasquez at Bellator 289, which is set for Dec. 9 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. A person with knowledge of the booking confirmed the matchup to MMA Junkie on Wednesday following an initial report from MMAFighting.com. The main card will air on Showtime following prelims on MMA Junkie.

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The 38-year-old Carmouche came to Bellator in 2020 after a lengthy run in the UFC, where she fought for the inaugural women’s bantamweight title against Ronda Rousey in 2013. She won her first three Bellator bouts to get a shot at Velasquez, then took her out with her third finish in four fights for the promotion.

Velasquez upset Ilima-Lei Macfarlane in December 2020 to win the title in Uncasville. She defended it with a split call against Denise Kielholtz in July 2021, but lost it to Carmouche in what was the first setback of her career. Coincidentally, she’ll have a chance to win the title back in the same venue in which she won it the first time – almost exactly two years to the day later.

Bellator 289 also includes the bantamweight grand prix semifinal bouts between interim champion Raufeon Stots and Danny Sabatello, as well as Magomed Magomedov vs. Patchy Mix.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 289.

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Stots-Sabatello, Magomedov-Mix bantamweight semifinals set for Bellator 289 in December

We’ve got a date and location for the next step in Bellator’s bantamweight grand prix.

We’ve got a date and location for the next step in Bellator’s bantamweight grand prix.

Interim titleholder [autotag]Raufeon Stots[/autotag] (18-1 MMA, 6-0 BMMA) will take on [autotag]Danny Sabatello[/autotag] (13-1 MMA, 3-0 BMMA) in one of two semifinals at Bellator 289 in December. On the other half of the bracket, [autotag]Magomed Magomedov[/autotag] (19-2 MMA, 3-1 BMMA) is matched up against sometimes-training partner [autotag]Patchy Mix[/autotag] (16-1 MMA, 5-1 BMMA).

Bellator 289 will take place Dec. 9 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The main card will air on Showtime following prelims on MMA Junkie. Bellator officials announced the event Monday following an initial report from “The MMA Hour.”

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Stots won the interim 135-pound title with a third-round head-kick knockout of Juan Archuleta at Bellator 279 in Honolulu in April. It was Stots’ 10th straight win and came in the tournament quarterfinals.

He’ll take on Sabatello, with whom he’s developed a fairly solid rivalry. Sabatello and his brash, trash-talking persona burst onto the scene this year with a play-in win over Jornel Lugo at Bellator 278. At Bellator 282 in June, he outworked Leandro Higo to reach his semifinal fight with Stots.

Magomedov lost to Stots in August 2021. But he bounced babck in June with a fourth-round submission of Enrique Barzola at Bellator 282 to get to the semifinals against Mix. Mix beat Kyoji Horiguchi with a unanimous decision in his semifinal fight at Bellator 279 in April. It was his third straight win.

The four semifinalists are working for an eventual title unification bout with champ Sergio Pettis, who currently is on the shelf.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 289.

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