Bryce Mitchell certainly has a bigger challenge ahead, as he recently opted to withdraw from his upcoming grappling match.
Last week, it was announced that Mitchell had agreed to a 180-pound catchweight Pit Submission (grappling) match against Israeli fighter Ilay Barzilay at Karate Combat 53, scheduled for Feb. 28 in Denver, Colorado.
The matchup was booked amid a storm of controversy surrounding “Thug Nasty,” who recently faced backlash for making anti-Semitic remarks and openly praising Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
However, on Monday, Mitchell took to Instagram to reveal that he had decided to pull out of his scheduled showdown with Barzilay, citing a major UFC fight on the horizon.
“I wanna let y’all know I’m pulling outta my grappling match on Friday,” Mitchell said. “This is my first time announcing it. Karate Combat don’t even know yet. So I’m literally announcing it myself before I tell anybody. I don’t want my words to get twisted, and I don’t quite trust them with my words.
“Reason being is, the great news is I’ve got a big matchup coming up [in UFC], big fight coming up. I don’t know the exact details on the fight, but I’m just telling y’all, something’s coming up and please be patient with me. I wanna fight too, and I can’t wait for this next fight. I’m prioritizing the fight over a grappling match. It’s not worth it for me knowing I got a fight coming up now to do a grappling match on Friday.”
“Thug Nasty’s” announcement came just a day after he fired back at Jean Silva, who called him out following his third-round TKO victory over Melsik Baghdasaryan at UFC Seattle this past Saturday.
Mitchell is fresh off a third-round knockout win over Kron Gracie at UFC 310 in December. The 30-year-old Arkansas native has split his last four fights, going 2-2, and holds a professional record of 17-3, with nine of those victories secured via submission.
