Pat Sabatini says the work he did on his mind after a March 2024 stoppage loss to Diego Lopes has changed everything, and he brings that renewed confidence into UFC 328 this weekend against William Gomis at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
The 35-year-old Philadelphia native and former two-time CFFC champion is on a three-fight winning streak, capped by a win over Chepe Mariscal, and said he has been unbeaten since he began addressing the mental hurdles that were bothering him. He also had a minor knee procedure a few weeks after the Lopes loss to clean up a torn meniscus, then reached out in March 2024 to Micah Schnurstein with the UFC Performance Institute’s sports psychology team.
Sabatini said the lessons he took from that work carried into daily life before they showed up in the cage. He said he used to take everything so seriously and live in the fight well beyond the 15 minutes inside the Octagon, an approach that he said drained a lot of the love he had for the sport and left him absent in too many of his fights. Now, he said, he is more enjoyable, more efficient in preparation, more present, more able to enjoy the moment, with far less nerves and far less care.
"I feel like it’s had an impact on my whole life in general," Sabatini said, adding that he has always had discipline but now feels the real advantage is learning to harness presence and use the mind properly. He said he is "oozing with confidence" and believes the improvement is still building.
The change comes at a point when Sabatini, who is 35 and represents Marquez MMA, wants a step up in competition. After beating Mariscal, he asked to face someone in the rankings and said he believes he is the best grappler in the featherweight division. Gomis is not ranked, but he enters the bout with a 5-1 record under the UFC banner and presents a different look. Sabatini called him "a very smart fighter, very rangy, with very good kicks," and said he is a good all-around opponent.
That tension gives Saturday’s matchup its edge: Sabatini is trying to turn a personal and professional reset into a push toward the top 15, while Gomis arrives with enough experience to test whether the confidence is as real as it sounds.
