Patchy Mix faces a ton of pressure and questions ahead of UFC 320

Back in May, the UFC announced a major signing when they officially announced that Patchy Mix (20-2) was being brought in by the promotion. The former Bellator champion had long been considered to be one of the very best bantamweights in the world.

Patchy Mix had an incredible run in Bellator that was capped by beating Kyoji Horiguchi, submitting Magomed Magomedov, knocking out Raufeon Stots, and then running through and submitting Sergio Pettis.

Then, Bellator was acquired by the PFL. The PFL struggled to book Patchy Mix and he only fought once between November 2023 and his UFC signing back in May of this year. That one time was in May of 2024 when he won a very close split decision over Magomed Magomedov.

Mix was incredibly frustrated with inactivity and when he signed with the UFC, he jumped at his first opportunity to fight. Mix made his debut just a few weeks later against Mario Bautista, the same night that the bantamweight title was on the line.

This was a showcase for Mix on the same night as a title fight and he was facing someone who the fans were not behind at all. You couldn’t ask for a better story. However, his dream scenario turned into a nightmare.

Mix looked completely flat and turned in one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen from a world class fighter making their debut inside the octagon. In one performance, he went from being looked at as a legit title challenger to someone who didn’t even look like they belonged anywhere near the top fifteen.

UFC Demotion

With that awful performances, Mix was demoted in a major way. He went from that incredible opportunity to fighting tomorrow night on the prelims against someone making their UFC debut. That someone is former KSW champion Jakub Wiklacz (16-3-2).

Wiklacz is a very dangerous opponent and like Mix, he’s incredibly dangerous on the ground. This is going to be a very tough fight and Mix is fighting with a ton of pressure on his shoulders. This is his opportunity to reset the narrative.

If he comes out and finishes Wiklacz at UFC 320 in a big way, the story can be that he just had octagon jitters and that’s not who he truly is. However, if he loses tomorrow night, it’ll show that his stardom was truly just a mirage and he’s not the fighter we all through he was.