Former Bellator MMA interim bantamweight champ Raufeon Stots returns to action at Bellator 301 later this month — and will be looking to return to the win column as well.
He’ll be doing so against rival Danny Sabatello, a rematch of their December 2022 Bantamweight Grand Prix semifinal, which Stots (19-2) won via split decision.
The outcome of that fight had some minor controversy around it, but that’s not necessarily why Stots jumped at the rematch. “When you get a chance to punch Danny in the face, you don’t pass it up!” he told Cageside Press in a recent exclusive interview. “And I feel like the chance don’t come around very often. They brought it to my table, and I’m like man, after I beat him again, he’s probably not going to have very many opportunities anywhere. So this might literally be the last time I get to punch him in the face, and I can’t pass that opportunity up.”
Stots is nothing if not motivated for the fight. Though he questions if the motormouth that is Sabatello will have quite as much to say this time around.
“I think it’s going to be fun. This time he probably ain’t got a lot more to say. He’s probably going to stay away. Because I feel like I gave him a tongue lashing last time and then I gave him a f*cking real life lashing and he kind of ran away from the situation. So I feel like he’s going to be— but I don’t know, you never know with Danny. He says he’s got a lot to say, so I’m excited to see [it].”
Trash talk and rivalry aside, there’s the fight itself to consider. Sabatello found some early success in the pair’s first meeting, which as part of the grand prix went five rounds. Raufeon Stots has a different feeling heading into the rematch.
“I got a bead on him now. I feel like I was able to get a bead on him later in that first fight. He surprised me with one takedown in the beginning, but then once that [happened] I stuffed probably like 14 of his shots. 14 of the 19 times he shot,” Stots stated. “Now I got a bead on him, so I’m going to just continue on the success I had later in the fight, the last fight.”
“This fight I know it’s a three-round fight so I don’t have as much time to let the fight develop, so I’ve got to be urgent and I have to not give him an inch. And he has more time to be a b*tch. So he’s probably going to hang on to me and work the clock and things like that. So I’ve just got to come at him, come at him and finish him this time. I’m really focused on getting him out of there this time.”
Watch our full interview with Bellator 301’s Raufeon Stots above. The event takes place at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, IL on November 17, 2023.
