Ahead of BELLATOR MMA’s highly anticipated return to the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut on Friday, June 24, the promotion held a virtual press conference today with six of its main card participants.
Headlined by BELLATOR Middleweight World Champion Gegard Mousasi (49-7), defending his title against undefeated and No. 1-ranked Johnny Eblen (11-0), the BELLATOR Bantamweight World Grand Prix Quarterfinals will also conclude, as the remaining four, hungry hopefuls of the tournament combat through the ranks to claim the coveted $1 million dollar prize.
Team Pitbull’s Leandro Higo (21-5) will face American Top Team’s Danny Sabatello (12-1). The winner of Higo vs. Sabatello will move on to the semifinal round to face Interim BELLATOR Bantamweight Titleholder Raufeon Stots (18-1) who recently bested former champion Juan Archuleta. Leading into the main event telecast, No. 4-ranked Magomed Magomedov (18-2) will face No. 10-ranked Enrique Barzola (18-5-2), and the winner of their bout will move on to face No. 2-ranked Patchy Mix (16-1).
The main card of BELLATOR MMA 282: Mousasi vs. Eblen will air live on SHOWTIME beginning at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. The preliminary fight card will begin at 6 p.m. ET/ 3 p.m. PT, and can be found on the BELLATOR MMA YouTube channel, SHOWTIME Sports YouTube channel, and Pluto TV.
Here is what the fighters had to say:
GEGARD MOUSASI: BELLATOR MIDDLEWEIGHT WORLD CHAMPION
“My opponent is undefeated, but I haven’t seen him on his back, I haven’t seen him go five rounds, so we will see.”
“A fight is a fight, I’m coming to finish this fight. I talked to Scott, and a couple of my past performances were not appreciated, so we have to put on a show and if Eblen comes to fight it will be even better. The last two were finishes so we are going to go for the finish again.
“The last two opponents were similar style, wrestlers, so basically, I’ve been training for a fighting style similar to Eblen for almost a year now. I’m not planning to stop after this fight, I’m happy to get my 50th victory and move on to different things.”
JOHNNY EBLEN: NO. 1-RANKED BELLATOR MIDDLEWEIGHT
“Every fight I’ve prepared for is like a title fight in my head, I approach everything the same. Obviously, I’m fighting Gegard Mousasi, so it’s different, but this is why I prepare the way I do, for moments like this.”
“People that have watched me fight, know what I’m capable of, they just haven’t seen me do it against an opponent the caliber of Gegard yet.”
“This fight is going to solidify my name and start my legacy. This is going to put a big exclamation point after my name – people are going to be talking about me. Especially with what I’m going to do against Gegard, I’m going to punch him in the face, I’m going to take him down, it’s going to be fun, I like his style, but there’s things I can do based off his style. It’s going to fun and exciting, don’t just think I’m going to wrestle you.”
LEANDRO HIGO: NO. 6-RANKED BELLATOR BANTAMWEIGHT
“I think the one that should be concerned about my weight should be me. Sabatello should be concerned about what I’m going to do to him in the cage. As far as my weight condition is going, everything is on point. I’m much lower than I used to be.”
“I’m not just a jiu jitsu fighter. I have many skills at my disposal. I bring a bunch to this fight, and he’s going to feel it. I can beat him everywhere in the game. I’ve trained with guys better than him, better wrestlers than him. The guys he’s fought, he was only able to dominate them because they don’t know how to hip escape. So, to me, it’s nothing.”
“He goes there 25 minutes, 15 minutes and the guys leave the same (condition) they went in. He is the one that ends up getting hurt. I’m the one that has power. I’m the one that can hurt somebody here. And I’m going to do that to you. I’m going to beat him up like he’s never been beaten up before in his entire career. And as far as disrespecting the sport, he doesn’t know s*** about what he’s talking about. He’s the one disrespecting the sport. He doesn’t have a martial arts attitude; he’s only talking trash — and he just got here. He has no idea what this level is, and I’m going to show it to him.”
DANNY SABATELLO: NO. 9-RANKED BELLATOR BANTAMWEIGHT
“I don’t think this guy is very respectful to the game. I know he misses weight all the time; he missed weight in his last two fights like a b****, and I really want to punch him for it. I see myself getting a win in various ways, but the main thing in this fight is just to punish him and make him bleed. If you’re missing weight, there’s a screw loose in your brain: that should never happen.”
“On the feet, he’s not very good. He has no hands. Then on the ground, I don’t think he’s very good either. He threatens with some bulls*** jiu jitsu stuff, but I don’t think it’s going to be very much of a threat to me.”
“I just want to split his face open. I want to punish him. I want to make him remember our fight always. In this one specifically, it’s just a little bit different because I don’t think I’ve ever fought a guy that I felt was really disrespectful to the fight game, so I think this one is going to be pretty exciting. I want to get him dog tired, and I want to punish him. This isn’t a fight where I want to just go out there and finish him, I want to torture him first and then finish him. I see a fourth round TKO, but before that I want to punish him and his little stupid a** f***ing face. We’re lucky this is virtual right now cause if this (press conference) was in-person, I’d slap the f*** out of his face. It’s probably good that this isn’t in-person.”
“I’m very fortunate that this one is five rounds. That’s kind of my fighting style, to keep the pace high and go as long as possible. Not only do I think I have the best gas tank in BELLATOR’s 135lb division, I think I have the best gas tank in fighting.”
“I think I could finish him in the first round, but again, I do want to torture him. I want to give the fans a good show; I want to show them a very high level of fighting, and that’s what I bring to the table. I’m going to dominate him for all five rounds — hopefully, it doesn’t go five rounds. I do think it’s going to be a fourth-round TKO. If it was up to me, I wish it was ten rounds so I could take off his f***ing head and play with it. I just can’t wait to beat the s*** out of him and slice him open. Going into this fight, my goal is to give him between 25 and 27 stiches, and I think I’m going to do that.”
MAGOMED MAGOMEDOV: NO. 4-RANKED BELLATOR BANTAMWEIGHT
“To be honest, I haven’t been following the rankings lately. We are in the Grand Prix and that is my main focus.”
“He is a very tough opponent. I didn’t watch his full fight – just the highlights. I honestly wasn’t impressed. He’s a good wrestler and striker. But don’t see anything special.”
“We are prepared; we know what we are up against – he has a good fighting background.”
ENRIQUE BARZOLA: NO. 10-RANKED BELLATOR BANTAMWEIGHT
“This fight is no problem for me. Magomed is just another fighter. I believe in my team. We haven’t changed anything on our team. It is my time – I am going to kill this guy.”
“I’m just focused for him. He’s got a lot of experience, a Dagestan fighter, but for me it’s no problem because I’m training with a lot of Russians. Khabib Team is here now and I’m training with them all the time. I know the technique, the wrestling, the distance, the fight. I know because I’m training with so many fighters from Dagestan.”
“I have been training with a lot of fighters with his similar style – working on the technical, on my distance, and more.”
“I am going to finish him in three rounds. I am trained for five rounds, but I am going to kill him in three. My focus has not been on the million dollars or reaching the championship but only on Magomed.”
