Bellator 258’s Patchy Mix thoughts on Albert Morales short notice bout
Bellator 258 takes place on Friday, May 7th. The event emanates from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, and broadcasts on Showtime. A virtual media session was held earlier on by Bellator MMA today and I was able to speak with several fighters. I talked with Bellator 258’s Patchy Mix after his James Gallagher fight dropped out. The excerpt from our conversation can be found below.
Bellator 258’s Patchy Mix
I was just kind of curious because earlier you were talking about the stylistic shift with facilitating taking on this new opponent here. But they (Albert Morales) have a pretty prevalent resume. In as far as having multiple UFC bouts to their credit.
Was this an opponent you were already familiarized with, in a sense, like you’d already done a pseudo kind of tape study on him before this?
“My buddies fought him. A few of the guys I know. I know Brett Johns has fought him. I was scouting him when he got signed. So I might have watched their fights. You know I was a big fan of Thomas Almeida years ago. I watched their fight now but I think I watched it live back then. I wasn’t scouting him. He hadn’t competed since November of 2019 and the guys who competed on the regional circuit, they weren’t the best guys. So to be honest with you, where I was in my career at the top of the division I was never looking back at fighting, let’s say where Albert is now.”
Bellator MMA
“I was looking forward to possibly fighting anyone from the top five, aside from maybe Magomed (Magomedov) because we train together and we have the same management. Unless it was for the belt. So I didn’t ever really scout him or look into it that deep. But now that I have, I feel I’ve taken this big risk a lot in my career. I took this fight on two weeks’ notice. Like maybe a little over two and a half, probably two and a half weeks notice. I knew he was a dangerous opponent and I knew he’s more dangerous than (James) Gallagher with the way he fights.”
“He’s got a very good stand-up game he’s got a deceptively good ground game as well. I like the risk and he’s got everything to gain. And I have everything to lose. I’m number two in this division. He’s not ranked, so he couldn’t come in here and potentially try to steal my shine. I hold my ground and I show my hard work. I show what I’ve done in the gym and you know if I do that, I get my job done.
