Bellator 279: Patchy Mix Disagrees With 48-47 Scores, Excited For Semi-Finals

Honolulu, HI – After a grueling 5-round fight Bellator bantamweight Patchy Mix booked his spot in the next round of the Grand Prix with a decision win over Kyoji Horiguchi at Bellator 279 on Saturday night.

Speaking with reporters in his post-fight media scrub Mix expressed surprise at how Horiguchi fought him. Mix walked into the scrum with a bit of a limp following the bout.

“He had good leg kicks. He’s a good striker so kind of tore up my lead leg. I didn’t expect him to come out with leg kicks and calf kicks. I expected him to come out, throw a lot of left hooks, and overhand rights. I just kind of caught off guard, but it’s good,” Mix said.

Mix tried to use his length throughout the fight and when it got to the ground dominate and submit Horiguchi, but his submission defense proved to be too much.

“Just wanted to keep long, I wanted to hurt him, I thought if I touched him on the feet I could knock him out or just take him down and submit him, smash him. I truly thought I’d be able to submit him but he had really good back defense. The better I get on top the more submissions I show. I feel like people are starting to get better defense. Mike Brown and ATT and his team they’re one of the best gyms in the world. I’m not surprised he was well trained,” Mix said.

“I thought I was going to be able to slice through that defense and get a finish which I’d like to, but you know. It’s five rounds and I had to learn how to pace myself.”

In the first round Mix was able to control Horiguchi on the ground and many felt he scored a 10-8 round. The judges scores after the bout did not reflect that.

“I’m not in charge of the judges, but I thought I had a 10-8 round in the first. I mean I had the back the entire round trying to threaten chokes. I brought him from his feet to his back while I was on his back, bent him back twice, I had his back I think in the third round. Second round I tried to feel him out to see where he was on the feet see if I could beat him there. I took him down again in the fifth round and I had his back again almost had him guillotined,” Mix said.

“48-47 I think wasn’t just. I think it should have been 49-47 or 49-46. I think I had a 10-8 round. I didn’t want to leave it to the judges though. My coach told me going into the fifth, ‘You go win this round. We don’t leave no stones unturned’ so we wanted to make sure we took this fight.”

Mix now waits for the winner between Enrique Barzola who won at Bellator 278 the night prior and Magomed Magomedov in the quarter-finals.

“I’m excited man. They’re similar styles, similar pressures. Enrique Barzola he’s impressive man. He has amazing cardio, amazing pressure, amazing jiu jitsu defense and wrestling offense. I think that’s going to be a great fight. I’m honored to share the cage with one of those names you know they’re big names. Magomedov and Barzola. I’ve trained with Maga and I’ve also trained with AKA coach Jav and Khabib’s team. I know Barzola is well trained as well. Just excited for the matchup,” said Mix.

“My true respect to them and I’m excited to be in the semi-finals fighting for a chance to get at the belt and back at the million dollars.”

Watch the rest of Patchy Mix’s post-fight media scrum above and go to CagesidePress.com for more from Bellator 279