The Bellator MMA bantamweight tournament originally had Raufeon Stots taking on his teammate and champion, Sergio Pettis. It put both men in a tough position until an injury forced Pettis out and Juan Archuleta took his place.
Raufeon Stots defeated Juan Archuleta by knockout and he's now the Bellator MMA interim bantamweight champion. He could still be facing Sergio Pettis down the line.
“To be honest with you, the goal is to win this million dollars – that’s my No. 1 goal right now,” Stots said at the Bellator MMA 279 post-fight press conference. “I got two more fights to win this million dollars and to be honest the interim sounds perfectly fine with me right now. I’m going to hold onto Serg’s belt till Serg is back and then we can figure out something after that.”
The new MMA champion was happy to win the belt against Juan Archuleta, the two had plenty of beef heading into Bellator 279. The emotions would have been very different if it was against Sergio Pettis.
“But right now I’m happy. If I were to win a belt from Serg, like Serg is my boy. It’s like me taking his girlfriend or something, that don’t feel good to me. This feel good to me. Juan Archuleta, I ain’t really care for his bald head. I really don’t care. This for me, I’m on cloud nine.”
It will have to be seen who is next for Raufeon Stots as the bantamweight MMA tournament continues. He will face the winner of Danny Sabatello and Leandro Higo.