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Patricky ‘Pitbull’ Freire wishes to become the first lightweight to hold belts both in Bellator and Rizin ahead of his fight against Tatsuya Kawajiri at Rizin 19.
The elder ‘Pitbull’ brother is no less ambitious than his younger sibling. While he makes the final preparations for his fight against veteran Tatsuya Kawajiri for the first round of Rizin’s lightweight grand prix, Patricky Freire revealed his wish to win the lightweight belt in both the Japanese promotion and in Bellator—where he’s spent the bulk of his career.
A knockout artist with 14 wins under Bellator’s banner, Freire told Bloody Elbow he wishes to go down the same route as Kyoji Horiguchi, who holds the bantamweight belt in both organizations. Although Patricky’s younger brother, Patricio, is the current Bellator lightweight champion, the 33-year-old believes that he should only make one title defense before vacating his spot. That would clear the way for him to fight for it without having a brother-vs-brother title fight.
“We have to see about that. Bellator only released me to fight in this Rizin GP. I would like to take Horiguchi’s route, win and defend belts in both organizations, but one step at a time. I believe Patricio will want to defend the lightweight belt once before vacating it, but we will cross that bridge when we get there.”
With five straight wins under his belt at the moment, three of them by way of knockout, Patricky (21-8) believes the path is clear against Kawajiri, just keep on doing what has been working so far and let his hands do the work.
“My strategy is to do what I always do. To walk forward and let my hands fly. I have the utmost respect for him outside of the ring, but only one of us can walk out of there victorious, and it’s going to be me. This is my time, I’m ready to beat him, I’m ready to finish him.”
Despite having never fought in Japan or in a ring before, Freire feels confident that he will be able to adapt to the many differences between Rizin’s fighting surface and the Bellator cage. He’s using his time in Japan to become acquainted with the new approaches he will have to take against Kawajiri in their bout.
“My expectations are the best ones possible. I’m worried about some things, but not many. A cage can make you feel too trapped. I’m used to the rules, with the whole fence work, so you need to do some adjustments in the ring. Yesterday I trained with a former Shooto champion who owns a gym where I’m training while I stay here in Japan. We went over a lot of details about using the corners, the ropes, and so on.”
Patricky Freire is expected to take on Tatsuya Kawajiri in the quarter-finals of Rizin Fighting Federation’s lightweight Grand Prix, on October 12, in Osaka, Japan. The card is scheduled to be headlined by a catchweight bout (220 lbs) between UFC veteran Fabio Maldonado and Jiri Prochazka.