LAS VEGAS – Mario Bautista thinks he’s in reach of the bantamweight title after his latest win.
Saturday, Bautista (18-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) avenged his UFC debut loss to Cory Sandhagen (18-7 MMA, 11-6 UFC) on the main card of UFC 329 at T-Mobile in Arena. Bautista took a unanimous decision and now has back-to-back fights after a loss to Umar Nurmagomedov this past October.
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At 10-1 in his past 11 fights, Bautista thinks he’s now entered title talk at bantamweight.
“I’m not too sure who’s (next). I know there’s some fights that are going to happen here pretty soon, so we’ll see how everything gets shaken up,” Bautista said at the UFC 329 post-fight press conference. “Hopefully I can fight for the belt or the No. 1 contender, at the very least, and we’ll see by maybe the end of this year, early next year. We’ll see how things get shaken up.”
The win over Sandhagen was an important one for Bautista. Sandhagen was the first person to ever beat him, and it just so happened to be in his first fight under the UFC banner. Bautista had long been hunting for that rematch, and he can now rest easy he settled the score.
“It did mean something personal to me,” Bautista said. “That’s the only one that’s itched at me a little bit. I like to be prepared for fights, and that’s not how I imagined my debut to go. But it just so happened to be in such a big fight for a top spot, you know, getting a win over him, chasing him down. It’s just crazy how it all worked out.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Mario Bautista wants title shot or No. 1 contender fight after UFC 329
