Danny Sabatello: American MMA fans are “dumb f**ks”, eyes over 100 Rizin title defenses
Danny Sabatello defeated Naoki Inoue at RIZIN Shiwasu no Cho Tsuwamono Matsuri to become the new RFF bantamweight champion. This transpired via split decision on December 30th and having certain people in your corner as well as particular voices around you can certainly inspire that championship path.
For the American Top Team product, this resonates as particularly important with the Mike Brown component and the former WEC champion has been such a big thread throughout Danny Sabatello’s career. When mentioned how that had to have been a cool moment for both of them along this journey, Danny Sabatello said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Yeah, absolutely. It’s really just cool for the entire gym at American Top Team. You know, I keep saying it repetitively since I started this sport. American Top Team is the best gym in the world. It really f***in’ is. So, obviously, not just myself, not just my coaches, but everybody involved with the gym. My teammates, the owner Dan Lambert, and everybody that makes American Top Team so great.”
I’ve had a lot of guys in my corner, not just Mike Brown, but some of the veterans of the sport. Obviously, Jorge Masvidal was a guy that was kind of someone I looked up to when I first started at American Top Team. So, just a bunch of guys who are really happy for me. They know how hard I work. You know, they know what the trash talk that I bring is only because of I work so f***in’ hard at that gym. You know, I go twice a day every single day in camp and out of camp.”
“You know, I just had the biggest fight of my life against Naoki Inoue in Rizin in Japan with 45,000 people. I got the belt right now and all I could think about was getting better. I showed up at the gym that next week ready to train. I had some people tell me, “Take some time off, enjoy it.” I absolutely did enjoy it. I was drunk for about two weeks straight, but you know, anytime I felt a little bit good, I went into the gym. Just because why would I take some time off of something that I absolutely love doing?”
“I think when a lot of guys take some time off from their training camps and they’re not in camp or anything like that, I don’t think they absolutely love this sport. I think they view it as a job and I don’t view it as a job. I don’t view it as a sport. I view it as something I absolutely love f***in’ doing. I love going in there and getting better. Training with the best guys in the world, working to smash someone’s f***in face. What is better than that?”
“So, even after I won, I wanted to get right back in the gym. At the end of the day, I love training. I love fighting. Obviously, you have a lot of distractions and you don’t always want to be in the gym 24/7, but I’m not a guy that takes a lot of time off because why would I?”
“What makes me happy is going inside the gym and busting my a**. Getting better and becoming a better fighter and even having bigger and better goals. Right now I’m the champion of the world. I’m the Rizin champion. I just beat a stud, but I’m already excited for what’s next because we’re just getting started over there in Japan.”
When referencing a prior interview ‘The Italian Gangster’ did where he said he wanted to defend the belt over 80 times. When it was playfully referenced that he would be looking at a strong strength of schedule going forward now that he’s the champion, Danny Sabatello stated [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Yeah, 100%. What people don’t realize is I was actually thinking over a hundred times, but I didn’t want to be too complex with it. I didn’t want people to think it’s unrealistic. So, I went in the 80s. That’s something that I’m absolutely striving for. I got to get on all these cards. You know, I’m a fighter that fights healthy or unhealthy. I’m not a guy that pulls out of fights…. You look at my skill set and you look at my fights and how I get better each and every fight, I think it’s very possible.”
“You know, I’m already bugging Rizin right now and my management’s bugging Rizin right now to get me on a card ASAP cuz they know I’m ready to go right now. If they called me up right now and said, “We have a fight for you next weekend. Will you take it?” I’d say, “F**k yes.””
“You know, I’m not a guy that says, “Oh, let me be smart about all this. I have a broken rib or some bulls**t.” No. Anybody offers me to fight anybody, I’m going to go. I’m going to take it and I’m going to rip their head off.”
Danny Sabatello: Rizin fans know “this is human chess”, North American fans are “f**kin idiots”
Since he has had a few fights under the Rizin banner at this point, Danny Sabatello has become much more attuned to taking advantage of the superior rule set. When asked how the Rizin rule set suits him, Danny Sabatello quipped [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Yeah, to me, the Rizin rule set is the best rule set in all of MMA. You know, whenever you have a guy on TV against another guy, you want to be able to say which one is the better fighter with absolutely no rules. If two guys go into a room and only one can make it out, you want to know which one that guy is. In order to have that, you need very limited rules. You can’t just have somebody not do some certain strikes just because it’s illegal.”
“That’s bulls**t. If this is a fight, this is a f***in fight. You don’t want to fight go over and do that little bulls**t boxing where they limit everything. That’s not a fight. We have a full fight in Rizin where you could do everything. It’s even good for the fans because a lot of times I see the fans say that grapplers are boring. Well, the good thing with the Rizin rule set is if you’re a grappler and you take somebody down, you can also knee them in the head.”
“You can stomp them in the head. That’s something that I’m getting more adjusted to each fight. You know, unfortunately the fight before Inoue, I was the one that kind of got punted as for a second, but thank god I’m tough as f**k and my lights don’t go out. So I battled back and I won that fight. But it’s just been a little bit of a learning process. Obviously, you can kick a grounded opponent, you can do whatever the f**k you want.”
“You could stomp somebody’s skull with this fight specifically in the title fight against Inoue. I learned from my mistake in the previous fight and I was the one stomping the guy. So, with about 10 seconds left in that fight, I punted Inoue’s almost head off his body, and it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.”
In past references to the North American centric MMA audience, Danny Sabatello has spoken about how a lot of those fans are idiots to use his operative wording. While North American MMA fans lack that broader familiarity with the nuances of MMA, the Rizin titleholder has articulated that he finds the Japanese fans to be that much more sophisticated and understanding of the sport.
When asking him to speak to those crowd dynamics and the perceptual dynamics with the sport of MMA relative to the North American and Japanese audiences, Danny Sabatello said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Yeah, absolutely. The American fans most of the time are idiots and dumb f**ks. They don’t know what the f**k they’re looking at. A lot of times I see them in Instagram comments just saying absolute bulls**t. That’s just because they don’t really know the sport too well. You know, you go to a event in America, you just hear people screaming knock his head off. They don’t know strategy.”
“They don’t know the actual ins and outs or techniques of the fight game. Over in Japan where it’s absolutely massive, they actually understand the sport. They understand the techniques at hand. When I have conversations with some of these people over there in Japan, whether it be through social media or live when I’m over there, they’re able to hold conversations where they can walk you through techniques that they’ve seen you do or that they’ve seen other fighters do and that’s really cool.”
“Obviously, as a professional, I want my craft to be seen as knowledge as much as possible. I don’t want people to think that I just go in there for a living and I do rock and sock ’em robots. That’s not what I do. I spend my time at American Top Team getting better and learning different techniques and skill sets. You know, this is human chess in there and I think the Japan fans really understand that.”
“They understand that these two guys fighting for a belt are at the highest level and their skill set is really resonating over there. With America, I call them dumb f**ks. They’re f**kin idiots. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of the Japan fans are dumb f**ks too. There’s a lot of just dumb f**ks in the sport. But anytime you can have people actually understand the sport and understand the techniques at hand, I love it. Japan seems to be doing that.”
