Bellator 295: A $1M prize at stake, but not a lot of answers as Raufeon Stots faces Patchy Mix

The end of a tournament in sports usually brings clarity to an event. When Connecticut hung on to defeat San Diego State in the NCAA tournament on April 4, no polls were needed. The Huskies were the national champions. A final-round 3-under 69 at The Masters not only earned Jon Rahm the coveted green jacket on April 9, but it vaulted him to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings ahead of Scottie Scheffler.

The finale of the Bellator bantamweight grand prix on Saturday at Bellator 295 in Honolulu, Hawaii, won't provide such clarity. Interim champion Raufeon Stots will face Patchy Mix for the tournament title and the $1 million prize that goes along with it in the main event. The winner will also be the interim champion, and therein lies the issue.

Sergio Pettis holds the Bellator bantamweight title and in June, will meet Patricio "Pit Bull" Freire in Chicago on June 16 for his belt. Freire has already held Bellator's featherweight and lightweight belts and will be bidding to become the first fighter in a major promotion to hold a title in three weight classes. Freire is already considered the greatest fighter in Bellator history, and a win over Pettis would simply cement that.

But then there is Danny Sabatello, the trash-talking wrestler who dropped a decision to Stots on Dec. 9 in the tournament semifinals. Sabatello is constantly over the top and has been insisting he was robbed of a victory by the judges. Sabatello is fighting Marcos Breno on Friday at Bellator 294 in Honolulu.

So, when this fight ends, will the million-dollar winner be Bellator's best bantamweight? Or is it Sabatello? Or do you have to wait until June for Pettis and Freire to fight? Or, better yet, will you have to wait for the fall when the Stots-Mix winner faces the Pettis-Freire winner?

There are plenty of questions and not that many answers at this point.

Regardless, at the moment it will be the most important fight in the careers of both Stots and Mix. Stots and Pettis are friends and former training partners. So Stots wants to get past Mix and then see what happens with Pettis and Freire.

"I was looking at the landscape, and at the end of it, I’ll have $1 million," Stots said. "And everybody knows I’m not eager to fight Sergio. I knew [Pettis] was itching to get back, so this gives me a chance to enjoy the $1 million in the bank and grab an extra-large popcorn to watch [Pettis fight Freire]. I had to scratch and climb to get here. I didn’t always have all this hype. Now I’m getting recognized for being one of the best in the world. I’m happy this fight is happening, so I’ll get some time off.”

Mix is a -115 favorite at BetMGM to take the interim belt and the $1 million prize, with Stots at -105. The belt is what most interests Mix.

Successful fighters will make their money, and Mix is confident in himself even though he's raved about Stots' talents. But he simply longs for the ability to call himself a champion.

"I fight to be the best, and that’s what I’m chasing," Mix said. "With this belt, it’ll give me more notoriety to say that. The money? I didn’t get into this for the money. Saturday night, it won’t just be for the money, it’ll be to call myself the best bantamweight in the world. ... Saturday, it’s all about claiming this gold."

Then there's Sabatello, whose talk has far surpassed his fighting at this point. He's a solid fighter, as his 13-2 record indicates, but he's one of the most outlandish trash-talkers in the sport. He felt he defeated Stots, though the call was hardly outrageous. Stots won a split decision, getting the tab 48-47 on the cards of two of the judges. The third, Douglas Crosby, scored an outlandish 50-45 in favor of Sabatello.

Even if Sabatello won, it was definitely not 5-0 and he clearly didn't prove himself massively superior to Stots, as he claimed. But Bellator gave him a platform by bringing him to Hawaii and putting him on Friday's card.

Sabatello, as usual, was undaunted and went off. He said he planned to "beat the f*** out of" Breno and said he doesn't feel he lost to Stots.

"On paper, I lost that fight, [but] in the back of my mind, I won that fight," Sabatello said of his match with Stots. "I don’t look at this as a bounce-back or a must-see or to reestablish myself to the fans. Everybody knows I’m the best guy in the bantamweight division."

It's going to be a big couple of months for the Bellator bantamweights. Unlike in most tournaments, though, not much will be decided after this one is over.