Patricio Pitbull is in line to defend his Featherweight title against Adam Borics this Saturday night (Oct. 1, 2022) in the main event of Bellator 286, but he is already eying the chance to secure gold in another division.
Once the ruler of the 145 and 155-pound divisions simultaneously, Pitbull says he wants to accomplish that feat one more time by retaining his Featherweight strap and then dropping down to capture the Bantamweight title.
“My intention is to clean the division out one more time,” Pitbull told MMA Fighting. “I’m already announcing that my next challenger, if God allows and I defend the title against Adam Borics, will be Aaron Pico. I think he’s doing well in the division. I want to defend the title twice — I won’t vacate it, I’ll keep my title, but I’ll try a shot at the one below. I’ll try to be double champion one more time, this time going down instead of up.”
But don’t expect Pitbull to remain in the 135-pound division should he capture the belt for too long. That’s because he will only stay in that division if the challenge is right because his body can not handle a constant drop-down.
“I’m not considering the idea of staying at bantamweight,” he continued. “Featherweight is my division, it works really well for me. I don’t suffer at 155 and I stay strong and eat well, but 145 is my division. Knowing that my opponents come from 185 or even 195, that’s where I do better. And bantamweight is out of the question. This is child’s weight, girly weight [laughs], it doesn’t work for me. I tried to stay at this division but it doesn’t work. I only fought there in the beginning of my career.”
“If there’s someone to defend the title and it makes sense, I’ll defend it,” Pitbull said of his move to bantamweight, “but only if it’s a challenge. Challenges are what move me, really. If there’s something interesting, we’ll go there and get it done. But staying in this division [forever], to me, it’s impossible.”
For now, the hard-hitting Brazilian champion has his sights set on Borics, then Pico should he prove victorious. Of course, Pico has to take care of business himself against Jeremy Kenney at Bellator 286, as well.
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