Danny
Sabatello says he could be done fighting after a disappointing
result in his
Professional Fighters League debut.
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Sabatello faced fellow debutant Lazaro
Dayron at
PFL 8 on Friday, a fight which marked the launch of the
promotion’s bantamweight division as well. It was a
closely-contested affair, with Lazaro dropping Sabatello in the
first round and “The Italian Gangster” answering back with dominant
wrestling in the second frame.
While they went toe-to-toe in the final round, a point was deducted
from Dayron for a blatant fence grab. However, the fight ended in a
controversial majority draw, which has left Sabatello in shock.
Without diving into the analysis of their performances, Sabatello
believes the point deduction should have been enough to sway the
scorecards in his favor.
“I have to go back and look but I don’t see any scenario how he
would have won that fight, given they took the point away…And this
is huge, this isn’t like a football game,” Sabatello said at the
post-fight press conference. “In fighting losses are
big. This isn’t a loss, but a draw is a loss in my books. And again
this isn’t looking at it as who did better and all that. If you
wanna just go by the book, they took a point away, I won that
fight. I don’t get this, speechless.
Asked if would want an immediate rematch, Sabatello said he would
like to run all the fights back that didn’t go his way. However,
Sabatello claims he is unsure if he would even continue fighting
here on.
“This is the fight I don’t know if I’m ever gonna fight again,” he
said. “I do this s—t to be the best. If that’s my last fight, so be
it. I would like that one back, I want them all back… I don’t want
to say I ‘am’ done. I am probably done.”
If he does return to action, Sabatello eyes a matchup against
Bellator bantamweight champ Patchy Mix, whom he considers the best
bantamweight in the world. Sabatello claims Mix would snap the neck
of the bantamweight champ of a rival promotion [hinting at UFC
title holder Sean O’Malley].
“I see that matchup with Patchy, and there’s more than one way to
victory to beat that guy. And he’s the best bantamweight in the
world, I don’t care what anybody says,” Sabatello said. “Patchy Mix
right now, you have to say he’s the best bantamweight in the world.
The other guy in the other promotion, Patchy would take him down
and snap his neck. There’s levels to this.”
Sabatello was on a two-fight skid in Bellator
MMA and hadn’t fought since November 2023 prior to his PFL
debut on Friday. Meanwhile, Dayron’s PFL debut marked the end of an
eight-fight winning streak built in regional promotions like
Combate Global and Titan FC.