FOLKS! As announced on Saturday night’s UFC Fight Night broadcast, the UFC has signed top free agent, Patchy Mix. And oh yeah, he’s one of us.
Fighting out of Buffalo, Mix was born 30 miles south in Angola and attended Lake Shore High School, where his martial arts career would begin in wrestling. He would become the first Lake Shore wrestler to make the state tournament in 40 years. He graduated in 2011 and would quickly make the transition to MMA. Mix started his training at local gym WNY MMA & Fitness and had 11 amateur fights, all of which were wins, 8 coming by way of finish. Patchy trains at Xtreme Couture, a Las Vegas gym headed by UFC legend Randy Couture that has generated five UFC champions!
Today, Patchy has an awe-inspiring professional record of 20-1, which in his 20th fight earned him a spot in the championship of the Bellator Bantamweight World Grand Prix Tournament, which he would win by a jaw-dropping knee to the head knockout of Raufeon Stots. Mix would then go on to unify the Bellator bantamweight world championship by submitting Sergio Pettis (Anthony Pettis’s little brother (damn I feel old)) at Bellator 301. As you can probably tell by now, going the distance is not in Patchy Mix’s repertoire. In his 21 professional victories, Mix has won a whopping 13 of them by submission, and another 2 by knockout.
After a cancelled Bellator event that would have featured Mix’s second defense of his Bellator bantamweight championship, he would plead with the Professional Fighters League (who acquired Bellator in late 2023) multiple times for his release from the company. On May 13th, Patchy Mix was granted that wish and officially became a free agent. Many MMA fans speculated that Patchy would soon find his way to the UFC. Mix is engaged to women’s strawweight contender Tatiana Suarez, and trains with many other fighters on the UFC’s roster.
Many thought it would be quick, and it sure was! Saturday night, the UFC announced Patchy Mix would replace Marlon Vera in his bout against Mario Bautista at UFC 316 on June 7th in Newark, New Jersey. Bautista, a great fighter in his own right, is 15-2 as a pro, with 9 wins by way of finish. This signing comes at a time when the UFC bantamweight division is struggling to create new contenders with the dominance of champion Merab Dvalishvili, who is scheduled for a rematch with previous champion Sean O’Malley on the same card as Patchy’s debut.
Many MMA fans, including myself, think Patchy Mix can come in and contend with the top of the UFC’s bantamweight division immediately. Could we see the first-ever UFC champion to represent Buffalo soon?!
Time will tell.