Patchy Mix sneers as he speaks, taking a question about his UFC prospects as an insult. Success, he asserts, is a foregone conclusion, as if all doubts were expunged before he threw his first punch in the Octagon.
If there is anything Mix lacks, it’s certainly not confidence.
The former Bellator bantamweight champion moves with the certainty of a man bound for greatness, of a guy who knows something you don’t know.
Bellator was the second-best MMA organization in the world when Mix dominated its 135-pound division. Mix, however, never once felt second best.
Like so many, Mix found himself in limbo when the PFL acquired Bellator in late 2023. He fought once for the PFL, in a Bellator Champions Series event in Paris, but had two other bouts fall through.
Mix has joined Michael “Venom” Page, Patricio “Pitbull” Freire and Aaron Pico in migrating to the UFC in the last 14 months.
Engaged to UFC strawweight contender Tatiana Suarez, Mix is the most high-profile of the group to make the leap.
He plans to make a statement on Saturday when he meets No. 10 bantamweight Mario Bautista in his promotional debut on the main card of UFC 316 in Newark, N.J.
Like Mix, Bautista enters on a seven-fight winning streak. And while Mix gave Bautista props, don’t for a second confuse that for a lack of belief.
“Anyone who wins seven fights in a row in the UFC, they’re tough,” Mix said. “He’s well-rounded in all the areas and I think he’ll bring out the best in me. He’s a good opponent, but I feel I’m great in areas he’s good at.
“Honestly, I’m one of the best finishers in all of MMA and I’m looking to go out there and finish him.”
Mix, who has 13 submissions among his 20 wins, smirked at the idea that submitting Bautista — a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt — would be considered a significant accomplishment. UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier often says, “There are levels to this,” and Mix made it clear he believes Bautista’s belt doesn’t compare to his own.
“Look, I’m a really, really highly touted black belt,” Mix said. “I submit black belts every day. I submit almost all of the black belts I’m training with, do you know what I mean? I don’t look at it as a big [thing]. There are levels to jiu-jitsu and I think I’m on a completely different level.”
He’s one of the few unranked fighters circling the title picture.
Champion Merab Dvalishvili defends against Sean O’Malley in Saturday’s main event. If Mix gets past Bautista, he’ll likely enter the bantamweight Top 10.
The UFC is stacked at bantamweight, and No. 2 Petr Yan, No. 3 Umar Nurmagomedov and No. 4 Cory Sandhagen are all championship caliber fighters.
If Dvalishvili wins Saturday, he’ll probably face either Yan or Sandhagen next. If O’Malley wins, the likelihood is there would be a rubber match.
Mix understands the business and knows he’s on the verge. Two wins — Bautista on Saturday and then one of the other elite contenders — should get him the title shot.
He’s friends with Dvalishvili and they’ve frequently trained together at Syndicate MMA in Las Vegas. Dvalishvili said at media day, though, that he’d fight Mix if that bout was put together.
Dvalishvili would never fight Aljamain Sterling, his best friend, when Sterling had the bantamweight belt and Dvalishvili was the No. 1 contender.
“It’s nothing personal,” Dvalishvili said of a fight with Mix. “He’s fighting for his family. I’m fighting for my family and my team. That’s all good. I wish him good luck in his fight and, hopefully, I’m going to win this fight against Sean O'Malley, and we’ll see from there.”
Spend a few minutes with Mix and it’s hard to ignore the sense he has deep in his gut that a UFC title is his destiny.
He’s only human, though.
Asked if he’d love to share a title card with Suarez, even Mix, the self-styled alpha, showed a tiny crack in the armor.
With strawweight champion Zhang Weili likely to move up to challenge Valentina Shevchenko for the flyweight crown later this year, an opportunity might arise again for Suarez.
Mix corners Suarez and has been at her side for all of her significant moments in the Octagon. Mix was devastated when, after beginning her career 11-0, Suarez lost to Zhang at UFC 312 in February.
She’s healing an injured knee, but is ranked No. 2. If Zhang moves up and the UFC has No. 1 and No. 2 fight for the vacant belt, Suarez would be in.
Mix desperately wants to see her win the championship. But doing it on the same card as his own title fight? Maybe not.
Since title fights are the last two on a show, the emotional toll that could take on both of them might be devastating.
“That’d be tough, man, even though I get what you’re saying [about building my name],” Mix said. “I’d be so nervous. I already get nervous for her, but fighting on the same card? That would be a lot, you know?
“What if I went first and I didn’t win? That’d put so much pressure on her. She’d be heartbroken for me. So I don’t know, but I do know we want to bring both belts home.”
In that moment of vulnerability, the self-styled alpha revealed the very human stakes of his grand ambition, a desire to bring belts home that might just be stronger with distance than with a shared spotlight.
A title fight awaits in the future, perhaps, but Mix walks into the UFC on Saturday overflowing with confidence. He has no ranking, no guarantees and no interest in waiting his turn.
Patchy Mix doesn’t see his UFC debut as the start of something new. To him, it’s the continuation of something that’s inevitable.
Courtesy PFL
Patchy Mix (L), shown in a 2024 win over Magomed Magomedov in Bellator, is 20-1 in his MMA career as he makes his UFC debut on Saturday.