Bellator will return to Paris later this year when they head to the Adidas Arena on November 16.
The card will see Patchy Mix return to the French capital as he looks to defend his title Bantamweight world title against the number one contender, Leandro Higo. After The co-main event Baysangur ‘Baki’ Chamsoudinov will be back in front of a Paris crowd fresh on the back of his win against Cedric Doumbe at 2024’s PFL Europe 1. He will take on the slick submission specialist, Oliver Enkamp in a welterweight contest.
Since his only career loss, to Juan Archuleta at Bealltor 246 back in 2020, Mix has made sure he has not tasted defeat again. ‘No Love’ currently finds himself on a 7 fight win streak, with 5 of those wins coming by way of stoppage.
In his first bout back from the title fight loss against Archuleta, Mix faced Albert Morales and quickly got back to showing that he is one of the best grapplers in the division with a third round arm triangle choke in the third round. He was then back to facing the top names under the Bellator banner, when he took on James Gallagher at the end of 2021 and stopped the Irishman with a third round submission.
2022 saw Mix enter the Bellator Bantamweight tournament and face Kyoji Horiguchi in the quarter finals. For only the fourth time in his career, ‘No Love’ was taken to the decision but looked solid over all three rounds and earned a unanimous decision win. A second round submission against Magomed Magomedov then led to competing in the final against interim champion, Raufeon Stots, at the start of 2023.
Mix won the tournament in impressive fashion, stopping Stots with a huge knee to the head in the very first round. The interim champion then had the chance to unify the division when he faced the 135lbs outright champion, Sergio Pettis at Bellator 301. Once again, Mix’s submission game proved to be too much for his opponent and he locked up the Bantamweight championship with a second round submission win.
The champion’s first title defence came earlier this year when he defeated Magomed Magomedov, in Paris, on the Bellator Champions Series: Paris card.
Higo will move back down to Bantamweight following a venture up to 145lbs for his last contest. Last time out, the Brazilian eventually met James Gallagher, over a year after the two were first set to meet. Higo silenced the Belfast crowd when he took the unanimous decision against ‘The Strabanimal’.
‘Baki’ will be hoping for a more decisive win this time round. In his PFL/Bellator debut, the Frenchman took on the superstar that is Cedric Doumbe. The ending of the bout was marred in controversy as the bout was called to a stoppage when a slither of glass had lodged into Doumbe’s toe, leading to him not being able to continue with the bout.
When Enkamp competes against him, it will be over a year since fans have seen the Swedishman inside the Bellator cage. After a strong start to his Bellator run, amassing three first round finishes, the 32-year-old finds himself 1-2 in his last three. The losses came at the hands of Kyle Crutchmer and most recently Luca Poclit, with the sole win coming against Mark Lemminger at Bellator 281.
The Lemminger win also marked a bit history as Enkamp secured the promotions first buggy choke win.
