Raufeon Stots thinks Danny Sabatello has nothing to offer but wrestling.
Interim bantamweight champion Stots meets Sabatello in Friday’s Bellator 289 main event at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The main card airs on Showtime following prelims on MMA Junkie.
Stots (18-1 MMA, 6-0 BMMA) thinks Sabatello (13-1 MMA, 3-0 BMMA) has done a good job of marketing himself, but doesn’t see any threat from him outside of his wrestling.
“The dude is literally a wrestler and his whole game is a facade – even the way he talks,” Stots told MMA Junkie Radio. “He’s probably the most one-dimensional fighter that Bellator has, but he does a good job of making people forget that. That’s his whole facade, is like, ‘I’m coming here to crush this guy. I want to hate this guy,’ but then you’re going to go in there and you’re going to cuddle somebody’s goddamn legs the whole f*cking five rounds.
“That’s what you’re going to do. I know that’s all he’s doing, so he don’t rank very high for me. I think he’s one of the easiest opponents I’m going to have to date just because you don’t see very many one-dimensional fighters. He’s a smart one-dimensional fighter, but he’s still a one-dimensional fighter.”
There’s no shortage of bad blood between both fighters. Sabatello thinks he’s in Stots’ head, but Stots is using all the trash talk to fuel him. He is relishing the opportunity to get his hands on Sabatello and sees double incentive in beating him in Bellator’s grand prix semifinals.
“This is amazing for me,” Stots said. “Not only do I get to talk sh*t and clown on this dude that I don’t like, but also I get to be the one who shuts his mouth, which is extra motivation.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 289.
