Patchy Mix came into his UFC promotional debut with a lot of hype behind him with fans and former training partners alike being surprised by the manner in which he lost to Mario Bautista at UFC 316. While speaking on a recent episode of Bowks Talking Bouts, Palatnikov covered multiple topics ahead of what eventually played out as a DQ win against Phil Hawes at DBX 2 on June 14th.
There is an old training picture at Syndicate MMA Palatnikov's Instagram with the former UFC vet in there amongst several big names like Sean Strickland, Aaron Jeffrey and also recent UFC debutant Patchy Mix who received flak for what many saw as an inauspicious performance in the octagon. As someone with that anecdotal experience training with Patchy Mix as it relates to his thoughts on that Mario Bautista fight on June 7th, Palatnikov said,
"Yeah, I mean like he got a lot of hate obviously from his performance but it's like come on, man. Like he's coming in off maybe I think over a year layoff, getting kind of messed around by Bellator-PFL whatnot, and then he took that fight on short notice too. Like I think it was like two and a half weeks. Like people don't realize and he's a big 135-er like he's tall. So I'm sure the weight cut wasn't easy for him and he just kind of, in my opinion."
"Just based on kind of what I've been through in the fight game and just seen from my own perspective, I think that was a tough weight cut and I think it had an effect on his physical performance. He just didn't seem like he was reacting how he usually reacts, you know what I mean? Like it just seemed like his central nervous system was fried or something. Like he just wasn't reacting to punches like he usually does. Didn't initiate any kind of grappling at all."
"It was just a weird fight from what you would usually see in the gym or on the mats with Patchy. Again like there are so many factors. There could be nerves, there could be this, there could be that. There's so many things that obviously we don't know. But from what I've seen and obviously what you've seen when he's fought and like the way that he performs like that wasn't Patchy and it happens right."
Patchy Mix UFC 316 performance assessment continued by Sasha Palatnikov
Palatnikov continued, "Like you come in, put a lot on the plate, a big situation. You're fighting in front of Donald Trump, you're fighting on a pay-per-view. He said a lot of things [laughs]. A lot of saying he was going to run through Mario which I'm sure only motivated Mario even more. Yeah, he got kind of checked a little bit but it'll be interesting to see who they match him up with in his second fight. I think that will be the true welcoming to the UFC because now he's felt that loss on his debut which is obviously not what he wanted."
"So yeah, just; that's the fight game, man. Like it's all about ebb and flow. When you're in the right moment, when you're not in the right moment. Like I mean look, Merab [Dvalishvili] was on the cusp of getting cut from the UFC at one point. So then he went on like a 13 fight win streak and look at him now."
"So yeah, like some of the guys on the mats would say [ __ ] Patchy Mix is arguably better than some of the guys that he's training with, right. Some of those guys are considered the GOATs [laughs]. So it's just one of those things. Training is different, fight world is different."
