Former Bellator champion Mix targets Rizin bantamweight title after three-fight skid

Patrick “Patchy” Mix will attempt to halt a three-fight losing streak when he faces Shoko Sato at Rizin 54 on August 11 at Toyota Arena Tokyo in Tokyo, Japan. The bout marks Mix’s return to bantamweight after a brief and unsuccessful experiment at featherweight.

Once one of MMA’s most promising prospects, the 32-year-old New York native arrived in the UFC with a 20-1 professional record and a Bellator MMA bantamweight championship to his name. His time in Las Vegas unravelled quickly, however — back-to-back decision losses to Mario Bautista and Jakub Wiklacz led to his release, and a move to 145 pounds at Rizin 52 only deepened the slump when Kyoma Akimoto stopped him in the second round.

Dropping back to 135 pounds, Mix now faces Sato, a 38-year-old veteran with 58 professional fights stretching back to 2008. A former ONE Championship and Shooto competitor, Sato has won three of his last four outings and arrives on the back of a first-round submission victory over John Sweeney, also at Rizin 52.

Mix has made no secret of his ambitions beyond the Sato fight. “So much respect for Sato but I’m coming back to bantamweight to prove myself,” he wrote on social media. “Fully dedicated and with so much vengeance. This story is far from over and this is how I’ll earn my shot at the Rizin bantamweight title. Everything is in my hands, I’m ready to show my true form.”

Rizin 54 is headlined by a featherweight clash between Kleber Koike Erbst and Kyoma Akimoto. The full card also features Joji Goto vs. Azizbek Temirov, Yuki Ito vs. Alibek Gadzhammatov, and Keito Oyama vs. Noeru Narita, among other bouts.