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Bellator featherweight champ Patrício Freire believes Pedro Carvalho won’t handle this level of competition on Thursday.
Current Bellator featherweight and lightweight champion Patricio Freire is looking forward to his next 145-pound title defense at Bellator 252.
Paired up against Pedro Carvalho for a bout which also serves as the division’s grand prix’s quarterfinals, ‘Pitbull’ does sing his opponent’s praises, but still believes he is just a tad more skilled to lose his belt to the Portuguese fighter.
In an interview with Combate, Freire pointed out how he believes to be more well-rounded than Carvalho. In fact, Freire wants to knock out Pedro in order to even his record, which currently has 11 wins by submission and 10 by KO.
“Pedro is a good kickboxer, he has good jiu-jitsu, too. He has a great guillotine. He comes from a great team (SBG Ireland). They like to talk a lot, but when it’s time to fight, the best man will win. I think I have the better skills. I’m a more well-rounded fighter in every aspect. He’s never faced anyone like me before. Faster, stronger, with more skills and who doesn’t get tired so quickly. He’s used to fighting three rounds. I have 10 knockout wins and 11 submissions. I’ll try to even that out, make it 11-11. But what really matters is to get the win. Having my arm raised in the end.”
Originally scheduled to take on Carvalho back in March, the global COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench into Freire’s plans. However, the downtime does not mean Freire stopped training or taking his career seriously. The Pitbull still thinks he will be just as dangerous on Thursday night.
“I didn’t go on vacation. I had proper training. I didn’t know when the promotion was going to come back, so I stayed semi-ready. We only get ready when we’re four to six week aways from fight night. More than that could be too much. I needed to control that and avoid injuries. When Bellator told me the fight would be in November, we started the pre-fight preparations, those harder training sessions. If that was a problem for me, it was a problem for my opponents, too.”
Currently of a five-fight winning streak, Patricio Freire (30-4) defeated Daniel Straus, Daniel Weichel, Emmanuel Sanchez, Michael Chandler and Juan Archuleta in his last outings. His last loss happened in August 2016, when he lost to Benson Henderson via TKO due to a leg injury.
Now, Patricio is expected to take on Pedro Carvalho at Bellator 252’s main event, on November 12. The card is scheduled to take place in Uncasville, Connecticut.