As rumblings of a potential sale of Bellator MMA to Professional Fighters League (PFL) ramp up, more and more fighters who are currently under contract with the Paramount Global-owned company are starting to look toward the future to contemplate what could await them.
Reigning Bellator MMA Middleweight champion, Johnny Eblen, thinks he may have competed in his final fight for the promotion after defeating Fabian Edwards a few weeks ago, and mentioned a possible move to Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) if the opportunity presents itself.
Now, another current champion is thinking along the same lines. Indeed, Featherweight title holder, Patricio “Pitbull” Freire says as his contract with the promotion winds down — coupled with the uncertainty of what the future holds with the company — a move over to the world-famous Octagon is fitting.
“I’m 36 years old and hold so many records in the organization I love,” Pitbull said MMA Fighting’s Trocação Franca podcast (via MMA Fighting). “It really looks like Bellator will get bought by another organization. I’ll complete my deal and see which offer we have on the table, but I think my career deserves a move to the UFC, especially knowing that if I leave as the Bellator and PFL champion we would be close to doing a big fight right off the bat in this organization.”
For Pitbull, a move sooner rather than later is the wise choice because he doesn’t want to make his way to the biggest MMA organization on the planet when his best days are already behind him.
“I don’t rule it out,” Pitbull said of going to the UFC. “I see it with good eyes. I think this is the moment. It’s the only moment. If it takes too long I’ll get old and my performance begins to drop.”
Naturally, the Brazilian bomber eyes a title fight against UFC’s current 145-pound champion, Alexander Volkanovski, who has yet to taste a loss as a Featherweight, with his lone defeats coming as a Welterweight early on in his career, then as a Lightweight under the UFC banner against division kingpin, Islam Makhachev.
The way Pitbull sees it, a loss doesn’t negate the fact that “The Great” has proven to be unstoppable at 145 pounds and declared that it would be an honor to share the cage with him.
“A fight is a fight, we saw me being dominant for so long, and all of a sudden there’s a loss. It happens, you can lose for many reasons, but I don’t see anyone stopping him at the moment,” he said. “I believe he’ll keep [the title], and that would be a great fight. We have similar age and height, we’re both short. I’m more experienced but he has vast experience defending his title there. He’s dominating. It would be an honor to fight him.”
Pitbull hasn’t had the best of luck over his last few fights, losing to current Bantamweight champion, Sergio Pettis, and then getting knocked out by Chihiro Suzuki in the first round in a last-minute fight at Super RIZIN 2 this past summer.
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