Danny Sabatello isn’t concerned about whether or not Leandro Higo makes weight for their bantamweight grand prix matchup, but he plans to punish his rival either way for past mishaps on the scale.
Sabatello and Higo will meet in a five-round co-main event at Bellator 279, which takes place June 24 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The stakes are high in the bout – the winner not only will make it to the tournament semifinals and one step closer to the $1 million grand prize, but the victor will also face new interim champion Raufeon Stots in the next round.
With Higo missing weight for his past two appearances, Sabatello feels it’s a complete lack of respect for the sport. Sabatello wouldn’t let Higo down if “The Italian Gangster”, the commissioner on the day of weigh ins, was given to him.
“[I would] I will fight 10 rounds to f ****** him,” Sabatello said to MMA Fighting on Heck in a Morning HTML4. “If I don’t kill him, then I get to take out a gun and shoot him in his f****** head. I think there’s no acceptable reason to miss f****** weight.
“But if I was the commission I’d say, ‘Hey Higo, if you miss weight, we’re making this fight 10 rounds and Danny Sabatello can do whatever the f*** he wants with you. It won’t stop. We won’t stop him even if he taps. We won’t stop pushing you, even if you’re knocked unconscious.
” If I had to choose, torture would be the best punishment. Similar to this fight, my desire is to finish the job *****. That’s what I think is best .”
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Sabatello has won six straight, including a dominant decision win on Dana White’s Contender Series in November 2020, along with a pair of wins in his first two promotional bouts against Brett Johns — a fight he took on less than a week’s notice — and Jornel Lugo in a grand prix qualifying bout.
On the flip side, the one-time Bellator title challenger has won three straight, including a pair of submissions of Shawn Bunch and Ricky Bandejas, along with a decision win over former champ Darrion Caldwell.
To say Sabatello isn’t impressed with Higo would be an understatement.
“Going into fight camps, you have a bunch of guys that simulate the fighter. These guys are told, “Hey, that guy’s muay Thai guy. Simulate a muay-thai man,” Sabatello stated. For about five to six months now I have been mimicking his fighting style. Before I spar, I go up to my partners and I say, ‘Hey, fight me really s***** because that’s what Higo’s going to do. He is a s ***** MMA fighter.
“I think I’m more than prepared for June 24 in the Mohegan Sun Arena and I’m just going to take his f****** lights out.”
After Lugo’s dominant performance at the April Bellator 278 show, the promotion awarded Sabatello with a multi-fight deal. Sabatello’s first fight under a new deal will see him get more attention and also send Higo to a different profession.
“I want to be the man, and I want him retire after that,” Sabatello stated. “I want him to have a hard weight cut — make the weight, don’t make the weight, I don’t give a f*** because I’m going to smash the guy either way so it doesn’t matter to me.
” But he will go in there overweight, and maybe he does, but it won’t affect any outcome. I’m going to f****** dog his ass, and my goal is to give him between 21 and 29 stitches, and I think I’m going to do it.”
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