When PFL absorbed Bellator earlier this year, bantamweight contender Patchy Mix found himself less than active compared to the years prior. This led to the southpaw demanding his release from the promotion, something that was granted to him. ‘No Love’ quickly took this opportunity to sign with the UFC, but his run so far in the promotion hasn’t been the best. 

Making his debut in June this year, he suffered a unanimous decision loss to Mario Bautista. This followed his second appearance last Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, squaring off against KSW champion Jakub Wiklacz. Yet again, though, the 32-year-old failed to get himself in the winning column, as he dropped a split decision to Wiklacz. Since the loss, Mix has revealed a brutal eye injury. 

Patchy Mix refuses to be upset

The bantamweight contender hopped on his Instagram story to share pictures of the eye injury he suffered. The pictures showed his right eye had swollen shut, revealing the severity of the hematoma. “Sometimes it just hits a little different. I trust God’s plan,” Patchy Mix captioned the post. Mix also met up with his father and seemed to have come to terms with his second straight loss in the UFC. 

He later released a statement, talking about his loss to Wiklacz. “Walking home from the arena, man, it just hits you, you know,” Mix said in his statement since the loss in a Facebook post. “Just got to keep it in perspective. Can’t win split decisions and be happy when I win them, and then when I lose them, I can’t be upset, either.” Even though most of the people thought he had won, Mix remained humble in defeat. 

“Much respect to my opponent and his team, and just got to get back to the drawing board, get better,” Mix said. While Mix may have come to terms with the loss, others haven’t. 

MMA pros on Mix’s loss to Jakub Wiklacz

During the fight, much of the action happened on the ground. Mix was doing great from the top position, but he failed to maintain a steady offense throughout the fight. The injury to his right eye didn’t help him much either. Wiklacz, on the other hand, constantly looked to sweep and go for submissions, but even he never came close to finishing the fight.

Despite the close nature of the fight, UFC veteran Vince Morales voiced his support for Mix’s win on X. “Patchy got effed on that one. BS,” he wrote. Even Daniel Cormier, who was cageside in the commentary box, was supporting Mix’s win. “Booo! That was bad Patchy Mix won that fight,” Cormier wrote on X. 

Patchy Mix will now have to go back to the drawing board and reassess his game. The good news is, he can always bounce back like many others in the UFC. However, success is also dependent on a lot of factors, one of them being dealing with the extremely high caliber of UFC fighters in the current meta of MMA. What did you think about the fight?