‘Patchy’ Mix Believes He Deserved 10-8 First Round in Bellator 279 Win Over Kyoji Horiguchi

While Patrick Mix did get the nod from the cageside judges in his Bellator bantamweight quarterfinal matchup against Kyoji Horiguchi, he still believes he deserved a little more generosity on the scorecards than he received.

“Patchy” defeated Horiguchi via unanimous decision in their Bellator 279 clash at Neil S. Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Saturday night, receiving a trio of 48-47 tallies to advance to the 135-pound semifinals. Mix took the ex-Rizin and Bellator champion’s back on multiple occasions in the bout, most notably in a dominant first round in which controlled positioning and threatened with multiple chokes.

“I’m not in charge of the judges, but I thought I had a 10-8 round in the first,” Mix said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “I had the back to the entire round, trying to threaten chokes. I brought him from his feet to his back while I was on his back, bent him back twice. I had his back I think in the third round. The second round I tried to feel him out to see where he was on the feet, see if I could beat him there. I took him down again in the fifth round, had his back again, almost had him guillotined.

“48-47 wasn’t just. I think it should’ve been [48-46] or 49-46. I think I had a 10-8 round. I didn’t want to leave it to the judges though.”

To his credit, Horiguchi was able to survive each time while being forced to carry the grappling-savvy Mix like a backpack. The New York native has 11 submission victories to his name, so it was no small feat for Horiguchi to make it to the final bell.

“I wanted to hurt him. I thought if I touched him on the feet I could knock him out. Or just take him down and submit him, smash him. I truly thought I’d be able to submit him, but he had really good back defense,” Mix said. “The better I get on top and the more submissions I show, I feel like people are starting to get better defense. … It’s five rounds and I had to learn how to pace myself. I wasn’t going to let the same thing that happened as what happened in my last title fight against Juan [Archuleta].

Mix suffered the lone loss of his 17-fight professional tenure against Archuleta in a bantamweight title bout at Bellator 246. In that fight, Mix started strong and then faded over the final three rounds. That wasn’t the case in another five-round bout against a fighter with a championship pedigree.

“Kyoji Horiguchi has only lost for world title fights. This is his first fight outside of Rizin, Bellator or UFC where he lost where it wasn’t a world title fight. I’m glad to have that name on my record,” Mix said.

“It’s just so prestigious to me. I deserve it.….I just beat the most recent Rizin world champion at bantamweight and a former Bellator world champion. So I”m happy and I beat him in a world title setting, five rounds.”

Mix is always active in the gym, but he also plans on spending time with family and friends as he awaits his next tournament opponent in the semifinals. Coming off the most significant victory of his career to date, Mix believes the best is yet to come.

“This is not the best version of me. I’m only getting better,” he said. “I’m 28 years old and Im gonna stay dedicated until I win this million dollars, I win this tournament and I win this title.”