“There’s a couple things that I will not allow another man to say to me without repercussions. I will burn your f—king house down.”
Danny Sabatello isn’t one to shy away from a war of words.
Bellator’s Bantamweight division has quickly become one of the best on the roster, if not the best. Helping lead the charge as a memorable face and rising star has been Chicago, Illinois’ Sabatello.
“The Italian Gangster” makes it extremely clear before every fight exactly how he feels about his opponents and what he’ll do to them. A strong and talented wrestler training out of American Top Team (ATT), Sabatello, 30, is simply telling his truth during pre-fight build up. Regarding common mixed martial arts (MMA) trash talk, Sabatello doesn’t necessarily believe there’s a “line” that can be crossed, but some topics are more sensitive than others.
“Technically, everything’s up for grabs but there will be repercussions,” Sabatello told MMA Mania on BROADENED HORIZIN. “Same thing with me, there’s a couple things that I will not allow another man to say to me without repercussions. I will burn your f—king house down. I never go after somebody’s family or religion. I don’t really see a need for that. It’s just tasteless to me. Besides, I don’t really give a s—t about a guy’s family or religion. If I was fighting a guy with a different religion from me, I don’t give a f—k about that. What does that have to do with the fight? Absolutely nothing.
“With the guy’s family, I don’t really care about his wife or kids or anything like that,” he continued. “I hope they’re happy and healthy. The only guy that I f—king hate is the guy that I’m about to fight in the cage. I f—king hate that mother—ker and I want to kill him. I need to be in the mindset that I need to beat the f—k out of this guy and absolutely f—king murder him. It’s him or me.”
Sabatello’s outspoken nature led him into one of the more volatile pairings of 2022 in MMA. Colliding with Raufeon Stots in the 135-pound Bellator Grand Prix title tournament, Sabatello found a willful dance partner to engage in verbal exchanges.
Unfortunately for Sabatello, Stots was awarded the interim title win via a split decision after a hard-fought five-round contest. Sabatello (14-2) has since rebounded with a second round rear-naked choke of Marcus Breno and will battle Magomed Magomedov at Super RIZIN 2 in Tokyo, Japan this weekend (Sat., July 29, 2023). The ATT product expects to be one win away from a title shot at most by taking out his Russian counterpart. If not, he’ll stay as active as possible while things get sorted out between the current undisputed and interim champions, Sergio Pettis and Patchy Mix.
“I have a f—king goal, I have a dream, I have ambitions,” Sabatello said. “I’ve had a goal since the day I was born and that’s to be a world f—king champion. If this guy wants to stand in the way and take that from me, of course, I’m gonna f—king hate this guy. But it has nothing to do with his religion or his family or anything like that. So, even if I were to talk s—t about a guy’s religion or family, it wouldn’t matter and it wouldn’t come off as really genuine.
“I think we’re at a point now where people understand when somebody’s trash talk or gimmicks or whatever is genuine or just for show,” he concluded. “Whenever I do talk, it is the truth. If I say I hate something, I f—king hate it. If I say I love something, I f—king love it. That’s just what it is. At the end of the day, I’ll never give a f—k about a guy’s family or religion.”
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