Tomorrow night, Bellator 295 goes down in Hawaii and it will conclude a two-night event from Honolulu. In the main event, we are going to see the conclusion of the Bantamweight Grand Prix as interim bantamweight champion Raufeon Stots (19-1) takes on Patchy Mix (17-1).
Stots was originally supposed to take on undisputed champ Sergio Pettis to start the Grand Prix. However, when Pettis injured his knee, Stots took on Juan Archuleta for the interim title and won by third round knockout. From there, he defeated Danny Sabatello by decision to earn his spot in the finals.
Patchy Mix lost his lone fight against Juan Archuleta for the bantamweight championship back in 2020. Since that loss, he’s won four fights in a row with only one fight going the distance. In the Grand Prix, Mix has a dominant decision win over Kyoji Horiguchi and a submission win over Magomed Magomedov.
I keep going back and forth with this pick. I think that Stots is going to want to keep the fight standing. We know how good his wrestling is, but grappling with Patchy Mix just seems like a mistake. I’m not sure Mix can get Stots down so I’m leaning towards Stots by decision in the Bellator Grand Prix finals.
Bellator 294
The rest of the card has some big time fights as well. In the co-main event, Hawaii’s own Ilima-Lei Macfarlane (12-2) will look to win her second straight as she takes on Kana Watanabe (11-1-1). Macfarlane lost her title back in 2020 to Juliana Velasquez before being out for a year and a half.
Upon returning, she lost a decision to Justine Kish last April. She bounced back well against Bruna Ellen last August and now she’s looking to secure a title shot with a win in the co-main event.
Two more fights to keep your eyes on is Aaron Pico (10-4) returning against James Gonzalez (10-5). Pico had his winning streak snapped in his last fight due to a shoulder injury that caused the fight to end. Look for him to put on a big performance. Overall, the highlight of the two-night event and it should be an excellent show.