Jaylon Bates Cites Krispy Kreme Binge for Sluggish Performance at Bellator 274

Most fighters who finish the night with a submission victory tend to walk away with their head held high, but following Bellator 274 on Saturday, bantamweight Jaylon Bates was not happy with his performance.

Bates improved to 5-0 following a third-round rear-naked choke of Chris Disonell. That didn’t stop him from critiquing the outing, and while he’s happy with the finish, he also added that “we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press following the bout, Bates admitted that “I felt like sh*t tonight. I ate a box, damn near two boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts. I could have done a lot better if I would have stayed on diet, and not gotten so big.”

Between weighing in Friday and the fight on Saturday, Bates revealed that he’d gained a full twenty-two pounds. Alone in his hotel room, there was no one to keep him from his donut binge.

“I’m in the room by myself, so I can do what I want. But I should have stayed disciplined. I’m disappointed in myself for that. And it showed, there’s a couple of times where I definitely could have finished the fight early, in my opinion, being in shape, being on diet, being disciplined, but that undisciplined [behavior] kind of cost me my rounds tonight.”

Krispy Kreme accounted for much of Bates’ weight gain prior to the fight. “I had seven chocolate, three iced, two glazed, I had an apple one— I was just grubbin,” he stated. Later, he’d add that it was the first time he’d given in to those sorts of cravings.

“Honestly I feel like this was the first time mentally, I just gave in to anything I wanted. Usually I’m very disciplined, and this time I was like ‘I want a box of donuts,’ and I went and got a dozen and half donuts, and I’ve eaten a lot of them,” he told Cageside Press. “I only have six donuts left, so, yeah.”

Bates is now looking for a relatively quick turnaround, though he’ll need to get a couple of injuries checked out first — specifically his wrist and knee.

“It was coming into the fight, I had a couple injuries, but it wasn’t as serious,” Bates said when asked about what had been ailing him. “Then I started feeling it during the fight. So I definitely want to make sure I get them checked out, I get everything handled. It was a little before the fight, it was lingering.”

Watch the full Bellator 274 post-fight press conference with Jaylon Bates above. More coverage from the event can be found below.