(Luckily for Freire, the referee’s attempt to blind him with a fistful of laundry detergent was not successful.)
We don’t want to jinx anything, but it has been at least 14 days since we reported on an injury in the MMA world here at CagePotato. It’s been a breath of fresh air, to be honest, and the first we’ve been able to enjoy since January of 2012. But all good things must come to an end, it saddens us to say, as it has been reported that lightweight knockout artist Patricky “Pitbull” Freire has suffered a knee injury that has forced him out of Bellator’s upcoming season 8 lightweight tournament (I can already hear your heart breaking, ALF). The news was broke via none other than the man himself via his twitter:
As it’s now been announced, I’m out of this week’s @BellatorMMA card. I suffered a knee injury at the end of my last sparring session.
“Pitbull” was expected to headline tomorrow night’s Bellator 87 card in a lightweight quarterfinal matchup against Guillaume DeLorenzi, and has since been replaced by Saad Awad, a 12-4 Strikeforce veteran whose lone appearance in Bellator resulted in a first round submission via rear naked choke loss to Diego Garijo at BFC 10. Since dropping another submission to Joe Duarte in his Strikeforce debut back in April of 2011, however, Awad has put together a four fight win streak, with all of those victories coming via stoppage.
The news is the latest in what has been a streak of bad luck for Freire. After decimating seasoned veterans Rob McCullough and Toby Imada during his first Bellator tournament run, Pitbull has dropped three of his last four fights to lightweight champion Michael Chandler, Lloyd Woodard, and most recently, a brutal first round KO loss to former Bellator lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez.
Let’s hope Patricky can bounce back from this latest setback, as he is far and away one of the most entertaining fighters at 155 pounds, let alone under the Bellator banner.