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Friday’s highly anticipated bantamweight title unification fight is set after the co-headliners made weight Thursday.
CHICAGO – Friday’s highly anticipated bantamweight title unification fight is set after the co-headliners made weight Thursday.
Ahead of Bellator 301, which takes place Friday at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, bantamweight champion Sergio Pettis (23-5 MMA, 5-0 BMMA) and interim champ Patchy Mix (18-1 MMA, 7-1 BMMA) stepped on the scale at the official weigh-ins.
Check out the video from their trips to the scale above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 301.
Friday’s first of two Bellator title fights is official after the headliners made weight Thursday.
CHICAGO – Friday’s first of two Bellator title fights is official after the headliners made weight Thursday.
Ahead of Bellator 301, which takes place Friday at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, welterweight champion Yaroslav Amosov (27-0 MMA, 8-0 BMMA) and challenger Jason Jackson (16-4 MMA, 7-1 BMMA) stepped on the scale at the official weigh-ins.
Check out the video from their trips to the scale above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 301.
Interim bantamweight champ Patchy Mix has just enough confidence to be dangerous against Sergio Pettis.
CHICAGO – When he knocked out Raufeon Stots to win $1 million and Bellator’s bantamweight grand prix, [autotag]Patchy Mix[/autotag] should have exploded in the confidence department.
And maybe he did. But if that’s the case, he’s certainly not falling back on it heading into the next most important fight of his career. Mix, Bellator’s interim 135-pound champion said he has to look at his fight against the champ, Sergio Pettis, as if it’s from scratch.
“After the past three performances, I go back and always evolve and add new things to my game,” Mix told MMA Junkie and other media members at the pre-fight media day for Bellator 301. “I’m more confident now than ever. Ever since I knocked out Stots, I’ve been in the gym training nonstop. … This is a big name and a big opportunity, so I’m only thinking about this fight. As far as I’m concerned, I’m 0-0. After Friday, I’ll be 1-0.”
Mix (18-1 MMA, 7-1 BMMA) talked abouthis bantamweight title unification fight against champ Pettis (23-5 MMA, 5-0 BMMA) and more at the pre-fight media day for Bellator 301.
Check out Mix’s full interview in the video above ahead of the event, which takes place Friday at Wintrust Arena in Chicago. The main card airs on Showtime following prelims on MMA Junkie.
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for
Sergio Pettis has been out of his brother’s shadow for a long time. Now he wants to be an inspiration.
CHICAGO – There aren’t many people in the world who can speak authoritatively on what it’s like to have a sibling on a Wheatie’s box, but [autotag]Sergio Pettis[/autotag] is one of them.
For athletes the world over, being pictured on a Wheaties box has been one of the pinnacles of sports for nearly 90 years. So far, the only MMA fighter to be on the cereal brand’s packaging is Anthony Pettis, Sergio’s older brother. He was the UFC’s lightweight champion at the time.
Sergio said trying to live up to the expectations created by his brother helped shape who he became – which is Bellator’s bantamweight champion.
“I just want to be an example for everyone who’s a late bloomer,” Pettis told MMA Junkie and other media members at the pre-fight media day for Bellator 301. “I feel like I’m a late bloomer. It took me time to really develop my game, my skill and my confidence. Growing up, I was not a confident individual and I had a lot of anxiety. I was also under my brother’s shadow, but in those dark times I was able to learn who I am.”
Pettis (23-5 MMA, 5-0 BMMA) talked about that, as well as his bantamweight title unification fight against interim champ Patchy Mix (18-1 MMA, 7-1 BMMA) and more at the pre-fight media day for Bellator 301.
Check out Pettis’ full interview in the video above ahead of the event, which takes place Friday at Wintrust Arena in Chicago. The main card airs on Showtime following prelims on MMA Junkie.
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 301.
Logan Storley might not have a win over Yaroslav Amosov, but he had 30 minutes of advice for Jason Jackson before Bellator 301 in Chicago.
CHICAGO – [autotag]Jason Jackson[/autotag] has a big ask ahead of him Friday. He’ll have to do something no one has done before: beat Yaroslav Amosov.
Jackson challenges Amosov for the welterweight title, and he said he picked the brain of teammate Logan Storley for as much as he could get on his opponent. Storley has two 25-minute fights with Amosov. In their first bout, Storley dropped a split decision. Earlier this year, Amosov returned from a lengthy layoff and beat Storley again with a unanimous decision in a title unification bout.
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“It means the world to me to face a competitor like Amosov,” Jackson told MMA Junkie and other media members at the pre-fight media day for Bellator 301. “He’s a professional and he goes about business the right way. I can’t wait to get in there and mix it up with him. … Logan told me everything. He left nothing out. I’ve been studying Amosov for years because I’ve always wanted to fight him since he’s the best in the division. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.”
Jackson (16-4 MMA, 7-1 BMMA) talked about his advice from Storley, balancing training with a full-time job, what Amosov (27-0 MMA, 8-0 BMMA) brings to the table and more.
Check out Jackson’s full interview in the video above ahead of the event, which takes place Friday at Wintrust Arena in Chicago. The main card airs on Showtime following prelims on MMA Junkie.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 301.
Bellator welterweight champ Yaroslav Amosov is glad to be unbeaten, but it’s only because he loves fighting.
CHICAGO – Some fighters might start to feel the pressure of being unbeaten after six or eight or 10 or a dozen wins out of the gate.
For [autotag]Yaroslav Amosov[/autotag], that number is 27 straight to open his MMA career. That’s a dozen, plus another dozen, and three more after that. In other words, it’s a lot of fights to win in a row at any level, let alone the level that leads to the Bellator welterweight title.
But Amosov said the pressure of 27-0 doesn’t get to him.
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“(Being undefeated) doesn’t matter,” Amosov told MMA Junkie and other media members at the pre-fight media day for Bellator 301. “I want to fight everyone. Being 27-0 is great, of course, but I just want to fight. If you’re a fighter, you must win every fight. When I go into the cage, I want to win.”
Amosov (27-0 MMA, 8-0 BMMA) talked his welterweight title fight against challenger Jason Jackson (16-4 MMA, 7-1 BMMA), which headlines Bellator 301, as well as being undefeated, the importance of his family being with him during training camp, and being an inspiration to people in his home country of Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia for more than a year.
Check out Amosov’s full interview in the video above ahead of Bellator 301, which takes place Friday at Wintrust Arena in Chicago. The main card airs on Showtime following prelims on MMA Junkie.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 301.
Check out these photos from the Bellator 301 media day at the host hotel in Chicago.
Check out these photos from the Bellator 301 media day at the host hotel in Chicago. (Photos by Matt Erickson, MMA Junkie)
Check out the faceoffs from Bellator 301 media day in Chicago, where Yaroslav Amosov and Jason Jackson had a friendly encounter.
CHICAGO – Bellator 301 media day took place Wednesday with all 10 main-card fighters in attendance, and MMA Junkie was on the scene for the festivities and faceoffs that ensued at the host hotel.
The main event features welterweight champion [autotag]Yaroslav Amosov[/autotag] defending his title against [autotag]Jason Jackson[/autotag]. And in the co-main event, champ [autotag]Sergio Pettis[/autotag] and interim champ [autotag]Patchy Mix[/autotag] will meet to unify the bantamweight title.
Three other fights are featured on the main card: A rematch between bantamweight contenders [autotag]Danny Sabatello[/autotag] and [autotag]Raufeon Stots[/autotag]; former featherweight champ [autotag]A.J. McKee[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Sidney Outlaw[/autotag] in a lightweight grand prix alternate bout; and a lightweight grand prix semifinal between [autotag]Patricky Freire[/autotag] and [autotag]Alexander Shabiliy[/autotag].
After each matchup’s fighters fielded questions from reporters, they came together for faceoffs, which you can watch in the video above.
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 301.
We want your predictions for Friday’s Bellator 301 event in Chicago.
We want your predictions for Friday’s Bellator 301 event in Chicago.
Our staff picks feature includes the consensus picks from MMA Junkie readers. Simply cast your vote for each bout below, and we’ll use the official tallies that are registered by Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET (7 p.m. PT).
Those MMA Junkie reader consensus picks will be part of the Bellator 301 main card staff predictions we release Thursday ahead of the event. Bellator 301 takes place Friday at Wintrust Arena in Chicago. The main card airs on Showtime following prelims on MMA Junkie.
Make your picks for the main card fights below.
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of Bellator 301 in Chicago.
Bellator is set for the final event on its current schedule with a return to one of America’s greatest cities – Chicago – for the third time in a year.
Here’s how to watch Bellator 301, with a complete lineup and look at the two championship bouts and more in “The Windy City.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 301.
