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Mix earns split decision win in first title defense

Patchy Mix defeated Magomed Magomedov by split decision to retain his bantamweight title on Friday at the Bellator Champions Series in Paris.

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Patchy Mix recorded the first defense of his Bellator MMA bantamweight championship on Friday, in a much tougher fight than most anticipated.

Mix (20-1) defeated Magomed Magomedov (20-4) via split decision in the main event of Bellator Champions Series. Two judges scored the five-round bout for Mix, 48-47. A third judge saw it much differently, awarding Magomedov a score of 49-46.

The 135-pound title fight took place in Accor Arena in Paris.

The discrepancy in judges' scores was not surprising, as every round was extremely close. Mix was a heavy betting favorite going in.

"He had a different game plan than I thought," Mix admitted. "I thought he would wrestle and he came out and struck. I had a good weight cut, good camp. He just came prepared. It was a high-level, highly contested fight."

Mix, who extended his current win streak to seven in a row, threatened Magomedov with guillotine chokes in the second and third rounds. He holds a guillotine submission victory over Magomedov from 2022. That remains the only time Magomedov has been finished in his 13-year career.

Magomedov managed to escape both chokes, however, and did surprisingly well on his feet. He hurt Mix madly with a left hand in the third round and bloodied his nose with a right. He hurt him again with winging right hands in the fourth, to the point Mix aggressively sought a takedown of his own in the fifth.

Overall, the judges favored Mix's activity. Although he was out-landed by Magomedov in total strikes 86 to 79, Mix threw far more strikes and varied his attack a little more.

He will likely face Leandro Higo (23-6) next. Higo is coming off a unanimous decision win over James Gallagher in March and weighed in this week as a backup to the title fight.

In the co-main event, French superstar Cedric Doumbé (6-1) bounced back from an odd loss in March, when he essentially forfeited to Baysangur Chamsoudinov in the third round after complaining of a splinter in his toe.

The former kickboxing champion looked outstanding in a first-round TKO of a very game Jaleel Willis (16-6).

Doumbe dropped Willis multiple times with the right hand and eventually finished the 175-pound catchweight bout with left hands along the fence.

The win likely sets him up for a future fight against former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, who was in attendance and squared off with Doumbe afterward.