Ahead of desk analyst debut, Raufeon Stots sees Danny Sabatello as the Colby Covington to his Kamaru Usman

UNCASVILLE, Conn. – Raufeon Stots knows every hero needs a villain and every great fighter needs a key rivalry.

Friday at Bellator 282, Stots (18-1 MMA, 6-0 BMMA) makes his desk analyst debut on the Showtime broadcast, brought in to analyze the bantamweight grand prix quarterfinals. The co-main event between Leandro Higo (21-5 MMA, 4-3 BMMA) and Danny Sabatello (12-1 MMA, 2-0 BMMA) is specifically interesting to Stots, who will face the winner in a tournament semifinal.

“Obviously for me, the Higo and Sabatello fight is super exciting,” Stots said. “It’s super exciting to fight one of these guys. It’s super exciting. I’m trying to save talking trash and coming at them because I want them to focus and perform to the best of their ability. I’m super excited to get my hands on one of those guys.”

In most cases, if you don’t like someone, you root against them. Stots doesn’t like Sabatello, but is actually pulling for the brash American Top Team product with bleached-blond hair and a constantly-chattering mouth.

“I feel like it’s going to be fun to talk to Sabatello,” Stots said. “I don’t know how Higo will talk, but he’s been talking a lot to Sabatello so maybe he’ll come out of his shell and give me some banter back-and-forth if I fight him. The fights, I think I dominate both of those guys. I’m just looking forward to being in the moment.”

Sabatello has fully embraced the trash-talk persona in recent weeks. He unloaded on Higo in the lead-up to their fight Friday. Sabatello even made a “Higo Sucks” sweatshirt for the occasion. With all this in mind, Stots thinks Sabatello is the perfect foil for a great rivalry.

“I hate to use the reference, but Kamaru Usman needed Colby Covington,” Stots said. “I feel like he’s a bit of a villain for me, in my story. I’m sure I’m the villain in his story, but I need people like that. I feel like I was ducked and dodged for a long time and people weren’t really giving me a shot. They didn’t want to talk back to me because they didn’t really want to fight me, whereas with the tournament, I’ve got the belt now and (with) the million dollars, there’s a lot of reasons to fight me now. They’re forced into situations where they’ve got to fight me.

“Sabatello is a person who’s chirping back. He feels confident in what he’s going to do. I need that. Fans don’t want to see me just beat up on people – just like Juan Archuleta. I kind of bullied him the whole time and he didn’t want to give talk back because he didn’t want to engage in that. That’s exciting to have somebody who’s going to engage back at me.”

Bellator 282 takes place Friday at Mohegan Sun Arena. The main card airs on Showtime after prelims on MMA Junkie.