Bellator bantamweight Danny Sabatello is nothing if not a quotable fighter, so we opted to let the American Top Team athlete open the floodgates in a recent exclusive interview ahead of this Friday’s Bellator 294.
The simple question: just what is opponent Marcos Breno in store for in Honolulu?
“A lot of pain, a lot of blood, a lot of suffering. I think this is a fight where I can go out there and absolutely dominate this guy,” replied Sabatello (13-2), not pulling any punches. “I know he’s got a pretty good win his last fight in Bellator, which was his first fight, against Josh Hill. But as we know, Josh Hill is not very good so it’s kind of hard to tell how good this guy really is.”
“Regardless of how good he is, there’s no way he’s as good as me, there’s no way he trains harder and smarter than me,” Sabatello added. “So I think this is a fight that’s going to be very fun for me, where I can go out there and just have fun the entire time, and just absolutely show my mixed martial arts skills and impose my will on him.”
There’s no one particular area Sabatello is concerned about, no threat Breno poses, as long as “The Italian Gangster” does what he knows he can do. “As long as I fight smart, long, and hard and keep the pace up, I don’t think there’s any threat that he poses.”
Sabatello fights Friday at Bellator 294, the very next night, Bellator 295 goes down, also in Honolulu. Atop that card is rival Raufeon Stots, who Sabatello lost a decision to in the semifinal round of the bantamweight grand prix. Interim champ Stots now gets Patchy Mix in the final.
While Bellator will want to keep that fight together if at all possible, a last-minute injury could hypothetically open the door for Sabatello to save the day. He doesn’t believe it will happen, and feels the fight will take place no matter what, “but hopefully one of them does get injured,” Sabatello stated, asked about the possibility. “Horrifically, hopefully. If that does happen, then I’m absolutely willing to step up and fight either of them, fight both of them at the same time, it doesn’t really f*cking matter to me. They both suck, I still think I beat Raufeon Stots back in Connecticut.”
Sabatello would later explain that he doesn’t just think he won, he knows he won at Bellator 289 in December. But regardless, he feels he’ll be fighting both Stots and Mix down the line.
“Fingers crossed that something does happen. If they want a fight even before my fight and their fight, if they want a fight during fight week in the hotel, that’s fine with me, I don’t really care. Both of those guys bug me, I hate both of those guys. But I think I’ll fight both of those guys in my career at some point. I don’t know when, but I’m very much looking forward to beating the sh*t out of all these guys.”
As for the loss to Stots, despite his belief that the decision was wrong, “you just take the next step forward. At the end, I’ll end up beating the f*ck out of that guy. My story doesn’t end until I until I beat the sh*t out of Raufeon Stots and get my revenge. But first thing’s first, is beating the sh*t out of Marcus Breno in Hawaii.”
Sabatello’s ability to sell fights has become well known; love him or hate him, fans talk about him. But bantamweight these days is far from a hard sell.
“It’s a very exciting time right now in the Bellator bantameeight division. We are just absolutely stacked, it’s probably the deepest weight class in MMA,” said Sabatello, who has been campaigning on behalf of Bellator’s bantamweight division. “Now you’ve got a guy like Patricio Pitbull, which is one of the GOATs in MMA, back in my weight class. It just makes things even more exciting. There’s so many dream match-ups, so many dream fights.”
“Sergio Pettis has Patricio Pitbull officially. I think Pitbull wins, barring a good weight cut and making the weight and him actually performing to his ability. But the good thing is for him, even if he doesn’t perform that well, he’ll probably beat the sh*t out of Pettis, because Pettis sucks.”
And there’s Sabatello setting up yet another feud he can sell down the line.
Danny Sabatello faces Marcos Breno at Bellator 294 on Friday, April 21, 2023 at the Neal S. Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii.
