Danny Sabatello had \u201ca hell of a year\u201d in Japan, going 2-0 under the RIZIN banner with wins over Shinobu Ota and Shoko Sato to set up a title bout with bantamweight champion Naoki Inoue. They will collide for the gold on the New Year\u2019s Eve show in Saitama, and \u201cThe Italian Gangster\u201d feels \u201cso f*cking pumped\u201d with the opportunity to close out the year with a belt around his waist.<\/p>\n
And Sabatello has no intention to slow down if he gets the title. After competing seven times in just over two years as a Bellator fighter, he makes a bold prediction for 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people, once they get the belt, they kind of tame off and they kind of get a little relaxed and they don\u2019t fight,\u201d Sabatello told MMA Fighting. \u201cNo. To me, I\u2019m going to want to defend my belt seven times next year. I\u2019m going to want to defend it overall throughout my career, 87 times. It\u2019s going to be absolutely amazing. And it\u2019s going to be nothing short of just absolutely incredible throughout my entire career in RIZIN, which is going to be a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, 87 is a lot of times, but you know what? I might even want to go even more than that,\u201d he continued. \u201c87 is a lot. It\u2019s never been done before, but I like doing things that have never been done before. You know what? I\u2019m a special guy. I know what I train at the best gym in the world. And this is all I do. You know, all I do is fight. All I care about is fighting. I don\u2019t have hobbies. Hobbies are for average people. I\u2019m not average. I go out to the best gym and I train twice a day, every single fucking day. So as long as I stick to my shit and I listen to my coaches and I train hard, then of course I\u2019m going to be special. I just got to keep doing that and I can absolutely defend it 87 times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inoue has never been stopped in 24 professional bouts, racking up a 20-4 record with two defenses of his bantamweight throne so far. He competed three times as a flyweight in the UFC between 2017 and 2019, beating Carls John de Tomas prior to decision defeats to Matt Schnell and Sean Santella.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to be able to finish this guy,\u201d Sabatello said. \u201cI could see it in his eyes that he\u2019s weak and that he\u2019s a p*ssy. He\u2019s not mentally tough like me. Obviously fighters are tough in general, but when you compare a professional athlete to another professional athlete, there\u2019s just different levels to this. To me, he breaks, he gets a little bit winded in his fights, he gets a little bit tired in his fights and that\u2019s just perfect for a guy like me. I\u2019m licking my chops when I see that shit. I have the best conditioning in all of them, and it\u2019ll be on display New Year\u2019s Eve. When I see that a guy is gonna be getting close to quitting in almost all of his fights, that\u2019s just gonna be absolutely very entertaining for me because I\u2019m gonna straight up dominate him and I\u2019m gonna beat the shit out of him. And it\u2019s gonna be great for everybody. Obviously, it\u2019s gonna put a stamp on me winning this belt, but it\u2019s also gonna be great for the fans because it\u2019s always a show when somebody beats the shit out of somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that he\u2019s more of a boxer,\u201d he continued. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t have the best grappling. He doesn\u2019t kick too much. He\u2019ll sometimes throw an inside low kick on the feet. He does somewhat of a good job being in or out and uses in his footwork pretty good. He uses the jab a lot because he\u2019s usually taller than his opponents. But with me at 5\u201910\u201d, as a bantamweight, I\u2019m one of the tallest guys in all of MMA. He\u2019s not going to be able to use his length and his reach on me. It\u2019ll be a little bit different. He is a little bit faster. He is a little bit quicker. But you know, when I say that, that\u2019s compared to all the other little bitches that he\u2019s and shitty people that he\u2019s fought. I\u2019m gonna be able to time him, and I think I\u2019m gonna be able to knock him out. But if I am not able to knock him out, I\u2019m gonna be able to submit him on the ground. Either way, I will be dominating him. I will be punishing him. I will make it a little bit bloody, and I will wanna beat the shit out of him, and put my f\u2019*cking elbow through his skull.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabatello finished Ota in his RIZIN debut back in May and then followed it up with a September split decision over Sato, and now said he would absolutely love securing the first soccer kick knockout of his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the RIZIN fans love soccer kicks, but at the end of the day, who the fuck doesn\u2019t love a soccer kick?\u201d Sabatello said. \u201cI think that would be an absolutely picture perfect scenario, but sometimes, you know, fights just get a little grimy. They don\u2019t go exactly the way you see, but make no mistakes about it, I will be going for that soccer kick knockout just because that would mean it was the best fight of my life. What better way than to win the belt in New Year\u2019s Eve in Japan with a soccer kick, obviously. You know what, we prepare for anything. We\u2019re preparing for 15 hard f*cking minutes, but we don\u2019t think it\u2019s gonna go that long because I\u2019m way better than this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of the ruleset as well, I think it\u2019s perfect for me,\u201d he added. \u201cObviously it\u2019s very good for grapplers because you\u2019re able to kick and punt and knee and stomp a downed opponent, so that kind of makes RIZIN fights a little bit more exciting than any other organization. Whereas a lot of times these grapplers are stuck in these positions in the UFC or whatever other events and they can\u2019t really get too many strikes off because you\u2019re limited due to the ruleset, but here in RIZIN I could do whatever the fuck I want. If I have somebody on the ground, it\u2019s not going to be boring because I could always knee their head, I could get up and punt their face off their body. Absolutely is a home to me in RIZIN. And it\u2019s just only going to get bigger and better and better. I\u2019ve already kind of taken over at RIZIN and I can see that the fans already love me, but we\u2019re just getting started. This is my first year in RIZIN and we\u2019re going to be absolutely going nuts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabatello does lament the fact he only gets 15 minutes in the cage with Inoue, though, as RIZIN championship bouts don\u2019t go up to five rounds as UFC, PFL and other major promotions, but he doesn\u2019t plan on going the distance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf anything, this is going to help Naoki, because my conditioning is way better than his,\u201d Sabatello said. \u201cYou know, if it was up to me, fights would be 45 minutes just because I could always wear guys out of them and break them in the end. You look at my last fight, I broke the guy in the end and usually throughout my career, I break guys if I don\u2019t finish them. So with it being three rounds, that\u2019s okay. Make no bounds about it. 15 minutes is still a long time when you have some motherf*cker in your fucking face trying to rip it off from the second that that bell rings. It\u2019s gonna be a matter of time before he breaks. You know what, I might even break him in that first round with that high pressure and high pace. You see it all the time when guys get into these scrambled positions in the first round, they somewhat come up a little bit tired, and they\u2019re just not used to it. You kind of have an adrenaline dump. With me being in his face and in the pressure, he\u2019ll break.<\/p>\n
\u201cI won\u2019t need 25 minutes to break this guy. When you have somebody with the high, high, high pressure and high, high, high pace going at you nonstop full throttle, just absolutely relentless like a dog on the f*cking bone, beating the shit out of you, punching you, kicking you, elbowing you, kneeing you, going for takedowns, taking you down, letting you up, punching you again, kicking you, taking you down again, more ground up on, it\u2019s just too much, it\u2019s too overwhelming, especially for a little bitch like Naoki Inoue. So 15 minutes is gonna be plenty enough time for me to play with my food, and I will get to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bellator veteran admits that the time difference between Japan and United States makes it harder for North American fans to watch RIZIN live, but he plans on convincing them that staying up over time is worth it. Sabatello promises fans \u201ca treat\u201d to make their \u201chard-earned money\u201d worth it.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor starters, it\u2019s absolutely massive in Japan,\u201d Sabatello said. \u201cA lot of people in the States don\u2019t realize how big MMA is over there in Japan. Absolutely massive. They sell out these shows, they sell out these arenas. One of my fights, the first one against an Olympic medalist in Oda was a sold out stadium dome, and absolutely dome, 50,000 people sold out, packed to the gills. So it\u2019s absolutely massive over there, and it\u2019s becoming even bigger over here. I think I\u2019m their guy to make it absolutely massive over here in America too. I think people just need to watch it. Once they get a little bit of glimpse of these RIZIN shows, I think you\u2019re gonna be hooked. I know from experience, all the people that I\u2019ve told to watch some of the shows and check it out, they\u2019re absolutely hooked because you don\u2019t just have to be a fight fan. RIZIN offers something a little bit different where \u2014 obviously if you\u2019re a fight fan, they put on very high level skill levels fights, but even if you\u2019re not a fight fan, you enjoy just everything. They put an absolutely massive performance on every single event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do know it\u2019s a little bit tricky just with the time change, it might not ever be as big[in the U.S.] as it is [in Japan], but it\u2019s just different when a fight card starts at 3 a.m. How do you convince people to stay up and pull an all-nighter? I think that is a little bit tricky, but outside of that, there\u2019s no reason why RIZIN can\u2019t be absolutely even bigger than it is. And I look forward to doing that. I think it\u2019s my responsibility to help grow this company with me becoming the face of this company. I want to put on big, massive, absolutely stellar performances and put on big events too. I want to help build them because you know what, this is my home as well. Only bigger and better things with RIZIN. It\u2019s obviously already massive, but we\u2019re just going to keep growing this and I\u2019m their guy to keep growing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m constantly defending my belt and I\u2019m their champion, I\u2019m their guy,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m the face of that, it\u2019s gonna be very good just for the market, obviously in terms of business, because that\u2019s what this is all about. It\u2019s gonna be good for them. They\u2019re gonna have an American champion that\u2019s very loud and isn\u2019t boring, and also isn\u2019t fake. I think something that resonates with the fans about me is when I do talk the trash, it just comes out of my mouth. I don\u2019t have rehearsed lines. I don\u2019t have these corny little things. This is just who I am. And the fans kind of appreciate that, especially the fans over there in Japan. They really know what they\u2019re talking about. They really know what they\u2019re watching. They really study the sport, they understand the techniques. It will be good for me to be the champion over there in Japan and it\u2019ll grow the market here in America.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Danny Sabatello had \u201ca hell of a year\u201d in Japan, going 2-0 under the RIZIN banner with wins…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,1859,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-378011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-rizin","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}