Bellator 289: 'Fighting him will make me feel better' - Raufeon Stots eager to settle Danny Sabatello rivalry in cage

The bad blood between Stots (right) and Sabatello (left) started following Sabatello's win over Leandro Higo in June

Raufeon Stots and Danny Sabatello will settle their bitter rivalry in an interim bantamweight title fight at Bellator 289 in Connecticut on Friday.

The American pair have traded insults for several months and are meeting for Stots' interim title in the semi-finals of the Bantamweight World Grand Prix.

"Once we're in the cage I have a lot of stuff to say," Stots told BBC Sport.

"I've had back and forths with fighters before where they said things I didn't agree with but not to this extent."

The trash talk has become so heated between the pair that Stots feels Sabatello has crossed a line usually drawn in verbal exchanges.

"He's a bully and I don't like the way he operates," Stots said.

"Anybody that I've had a disagreement with in the past, I felt like fighting would solve that disagreement and I'd be able to release the feelings and anger towards them I felt by inflicting pain.

"Fighting him will help me feel better."

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Stots, 33, and Sabatello, 29, have been exchanging insults since the pair were matched up inside the cage following Sabatello's win over Leandro Higo in June.

Although it is not uncommon for MMA fighters to berate each other in the build-up to fights, the rivalry between Stots and Sabatello has appeared to have an extra layer.

While promoting their fight in August, they had to be separated live on air during journalist Ariel Helwani's MMA Hour show.

The interim bantamweight title, which Stots won by beating Juan Archuleta in April while champion Sergio Pettis recovered from injury, is also at stake when the pair meet at the Mohegan Sun Arena.

"I'm looking forward to the talking and emotions," Stots said. "The talk outside the cage adds extra chips on the table for when he has to actually prove the things he's been talking about.

"I think deep down he wants to be liked and [trash talking] is his defence mechanism. He spews stuff out before you can say anything to him first. I don't buy it and I don't like him at all."

Stots added that fans can expect a "one-sided demolishing fight".

"I don't see him doing his thing outside of trying to hold position on me and you can expect me trying to inflict damage on him for 25 minutes," he said.

'Usman is like a big brother to me'

Stots, who has won all six of his Bellator fights since joining the promotion in 2019, is a long-time friend of former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman.

Usman held the welterweight title for three years, defending it five times, before defeat against Britain's Leon Edwards in August.

The pair met and bonded over their Nigerian heritage at a wrestling school in Texas, before Stots asked him for advice on transitioning to MMA in 2015.

Stots says he speaks to Usman "every one or two months".

"He's taught me a lot about wrestling and also given me a lot of advice about my career," he said.

"He's been a role model in the sport, not only the things he tells me but I'd watch the things he does and I take from that what I need too."

Stots, who was born in Houston, Texas, takes pride in representing Nigeria inside the cage.

"All my family on my dad's side [are Nigerian]. I'm very close to them," he said.

"I want to represent all of me and I'm from Nigerian decent, so it means a lot to me."

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