Sergio Pettis vs Raufeon Stots to headline Bellator 279
We have a pair of bantamweight contests added to Bellator 279, one of which is a title fight, and the other a supposed No. 1 contender bout.
Headlining the card, the championship bout of course, is Bellator bantamweight champion Sergio Pettis, who looks to make the second-straight defense of his title in the main event of the evening opposing No. 3 ranked Raufeon Stots.
Co-headlining the event is former Rizin & Bellator bantamweight champion, No. 5 ranked Kyoji Horiguchi, who aims to take out No. 2 ranked Patchy Mix.
Today we talk about the main event between a pair of champions.
Pettis isn’t new to being a champion, though he just won his first world title less than one full year ago. He came to the UFC after claiming the RFA flyweight & NAFC bantamweight crowns in back-to-back outings.
After going 9-5 in the promotion, he decided to sign with Bellator, where he first submitted Alfred Khashakyan (guillotine choke), before defeating Ricky Bandejas (UD). Next would come a title shot against then champion Juan Archuleta, who he handily out-pointed (UD), before KO’ing co-main event talent Kyoji Horiguchi in his first title defense.
Archuleta came into that bout with a record of 25-2, and Horiguchi came in with a record of 29-3. Stots comes in to face the champion with a record of 17-1, only ever having lost to Merab Dvalishvili.
Pettis is non-stop fighting the very best talents in the world, in and out of the UFC.
It’s a wonder, if he stayed in the UFC at 125 lbs, would he be champion there too? Probably.
Stots is a two-time NCAA Division II national champion, and he also defeated The Ultimate Fighter 5 veteran Rob Emerson via five-round unanimous decision to claim the VFC bantamweight championship in his eighth fight.
Next would come his defeat to Dvalishvili, before winning his next four-straight en route to a contract with Bellator.
He’s since gone 4-0 in the promotion, submitting Cass Bell (rear naked choke) in his debut, before winning all nine rounds of his next three outings.
One of those wins saw him victorious over Kevin Lee’s brother, Keith Lee, before he 30-27’d Josh Hill and Magomed Magomedov.
Hill came into their bout with a record of 20-3, having lost twice to six-time WSOF champion Marlon Moraes.
His only other defeat came via split decision to Taylor Lapilus, who’s a 17-3 GMC & TKO champion. Then Magomedov came into their bout with a record of 18-1. He’d only ever lost to former UFC bantamweight champion and current interim champion Petr Yan. He’s also the only man to truly defeat Yan.
That’s some serious competition right there, very similar to the path of Pettis, minus the UFC run.
One could think, Stots lost to Dvalishvili via KO (spinning back fist). That’s the exact way Pettis defeated Horiguchi in his last fight. So, if Dvalishvili can do that to him, Pettis certainly can.
Not to mention, Pettis is a black belt in kickboxing, and a 2nd-degree black belt in Taekwondo. He has all sorts of tools he can resort to on the feet at any given moment.
On the contrary, Pettis has been out-wrestled and out-grappled before. He was submitted in his first professional defeat, though it was a long time ago, then Henry Cejudo and Jussier Formiga were able to control him to decision victories later on.
Horiguchi was also mauling Pettis in their fight before Pettis pulled off that stunning KO in round four that earned him Knockout of the Year honors under four media outlets, as well as Comeback of the Year honors under five media outlets.
If Horiguchi can do that, we’d think a stud wrestler like Stots can as well.
This is such an exciting match up we’ve all been waiting for!
Who walks away as Bellator bantamweight champion?
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