Undefeated Jaylon Bates Aims to Leave the Game as ‘The Best 135er Ever’

Jaylon Bates may be young, but he doesn’t lack the confidence to set high long-term goals for himself. Bates (5-0, 5-0 Bellator) is among the few fighters signed by Bellator MMA ahead of their professional mixed martial arts debut. “New Breed” walked out to the cage for the first time in November 2020, when he upended Joseph Supino on all scorecards at Bellator 251. Bates has scored four more victories since that day, all by submission. Next, he takes on Mark Coates at Bellator 283 this Saturday in Tacoma, Wash. Ahead of his upcoming battle, Bates revealed his ambition to be remembered as the best bantamweight to ever compete.

“God's given me a talent, God's given me a mentality to go and fight. I just want Him to use me and use me through the way He sees fit, and He's blessed my life to be in this position. My mentality has always been like I can fight, but He's shown me that with you put in the hard work, because talent is one thing. When you look at a large scale, am I the most talented bantamweight fighter? No, I don't think I am, even though that might be other people's opinions. That's not for me to say, but when I look at everything, and I look at how hard I'm willing to work. Yeah. I definitely know that God's given me a talent, so I'm gonna use it, exploit it, make a lot of money from it, bless others and go on about my day, eventually leave the game as the best ever, the best 135er to ever do it. That's the plan.”

(00:00) Intro
(01:11) Celebrating the Fourth of July
(02:19) Preparing for Coates
(03:31) His love for grappling
(04:42) His favorite submission maneuver
(05:53) Getting signed by Bellator ahead of his MMA debut
(07:03) Keeping a busy schedule
(08:15) His pick for the bantamweight grand prix
(10:38) Predicting a first-round submission
(11:45) Thinking about an unpredictable way to walk out to the cage
(12:50) Acknowledgements
(13:34) Outro