Tag: Patricio Freire

Pitbull Calls for Cross-Promotional Fights, Singles Out Max Holloway

Two-division Bellator champion Patricio “Pitbull” Freire would like the opportunity to prove that he is the best featherweight in the world by defeating the man who is arguably the featherweight GOAT: Max “Blessed” Holloway. Patricio Pitbull is one of …

Two-division Bellator champion Patricio “Pitbull” Freire would like the opportunity to prove that he is the best featherweight in the world by defeating the man who is arguably the featherweight GOAT: Max “Blessed” Holloway. Patricio Pitbull is one of the proudest members of the Bellator roster and rightfully so. After all, Pitbull holds two different […]

Patricio Freire Wants Cross-Promotional Bouts, Targeting Max Holloway

FreirePatricio Freire wants to create history with some cross-promotional fights. The Bellator two-weight champion has long expressed his interest in facing the best featherweights and lightweights in the UFC. That’s only further increased after his old foe Michael Chandler — who he defeated by knockout in 2019 — enjoyed an emphatic debut in the UFC […]

Freire

Patricio Freire wants to create history with some cross-promotional fights.

The Bellator two-weight champion has long expressed his interest in facing the best featherweights and lightweights in the UFC.

That’s only further increased after his old foe Michael Chandler — who he defeated by knockout in 2019 — enjoyed an emphatic debut in the UFC last month.

While he won’t follow Chandler’s footsteps, “Pitbull” still hopes to make history one day — no matter how unlikely a UFC vs. Bellator crossover is.

“I definitely want to have a shot at those guys – especially the ones that people say I can’t beat or that would beat me easily,” Freire told MMA Junkie. “It’s not that the UFC interests me most, actually. I’d like to create history, something new in the sport – to create a big cross-promotion, like in boxing (where) you have the champions sometimes fighting each other. That’s what we’re missing in MMA right now. I’d like to be the guy to start that.

“… There’s something more that I would like to add to this sport. I’d like to be part of this big movement to make this change (and) force the UFC. I already beat your future champion. So let’s put everyone together and see who’s really the best. The fans would want that. The sport needs that. No more, ‘This promotion or that promotion?’ There is a business side of things, but people want to see the best fighting the best.”

While Freire has called for a shot against a host of UFC names in the past such as Alexander Volkanovski, Conor McGregor and even Khabib Nurmagomedov, one name in particular currently interests him and that’s former featherweight champion Max Holloway.

He’d even like to see Holloway switch sides and get paid more in Bellator.

“(The future) belongs to God,” Freire added. “We’ll see what’s next. Maybe Max Holloway gets tired of making pennies in the UFC and comes to Bellator so we can make a huge stadium show in Hawaii. We could see a change from the top guys from the UFC (coming) to Bellator.

“If they don’t think there is money here, that’s a lie. Bellator would be willing to pay for those who deserve it. We will see what the future reserves – where I’ll be at, where they’ll be at, and what Bellator will be willing to do. But I don’t have any worries. I know it’s going to do something good.”

Do you think Freire will ever get his wish?

Pitbull Believes Michael Chandler Proved Bellator’s “Power” At UFC 257

Current Bellator double champ Patricio “Pitbull” Freire believes Michael Chandler’s first-round KO of Dan Hooker at UFC 257 demonstrates more than just one man’s ability. Patricio Freire and Michael Chandler have no love loss for one anothe…

Current Bellator double champ Patricio “Pitbull” Freire believes Michael Chandler’s first-round KO of Dan Hooker at UFC 257 demonstrates more than just one man’s ability. Patricio Freire and Michael Chandler have no love loss for one another, but even Freire had to give it up to Chandler for his impressive UFC debut at UFC 257. […]

Patricio Freire Believes Michael Chandler Beats Dustin Poirier, Showing ‘The Power Of Bellator’

ChandlerBellator featherweight and lightweight champion Patricio Freire believes old foe Michael Chandler can defeat Dustin Poirier. Chandler made headlines this past weekend after an emphatic debut that saw him defeat Dan Hooker via first-round TKO at UFC 257. Many are now eager to see how Chandler does against the rest of the division with some […]

Chandler

Bellator featherweight and lightweight champion Patricio Freire believes old foe Michael Chandler can defeat Dustin Poirier.

Chandler made headlines this past weekend after an emphatic debut that saw him defeat Dan Hooker via first-round TKO at UFC 257.

Many are now eager to see how Chandler does against the rest of the division with some observers even calling for him to face Poirier next, who is coming off a second-round knockout win over Conor McGregor.

And as far as Freire is concerned, Chandler is a bad matchup for Poirier.

“Poirier proved in that second fight against [Conor] McGregor that besides evolving his boxing, he also has a strong mind,” Freire told Sherdog. “But Chandler’s game is a bad matchup for him. I truly believe he can beat Poirier very easily, just like he did with Hooker.

“He [Poirier] commits a couple of boxing mistakes that could be dangerous with Chandler. For example, he copies the [Floyd] Mayweather shoulder defense, which is really dangerous with four-ounce gloves. And he frequently gets hit because of that. If he gets hit by explosive guys with the knockout power of Chandler or myself, he will sleep. No doubt about it.”

Despite these comments, there is certainly no love lost between “Pitbull” and Chandler with the former being the last person to defeat the latter back in 2019.

That said, Freire is somewhat rooting for Chandler in a way even if he doesn’t admit it — especially as the American is showing that fighters at Bellator are more than capable of defeating the UFC’s best.

“Everybody knows that I don’t like Chandler, and I don’t cheer for him,” Freire added. “But he is showing, like Eddie Alvarez did, the power of Bellator.”

What do you make of Freire’s comments?

Patricio Freire & Scott Coker Claim Bellator Has The Best Featherweight In MMA

Patricio FreirePatricio Freire defended his Bellator featherweight title with a quick knockout win over Pedro Carvalho last night. Post-fight ‘Pitbull’ declared himself the best 145lb fighter in MMA, he said. “I’m not the best featherweight in Bellator. I’m the best featherweight in the world. No other featherweight has my hands. I’m complete. Now, I have 11 […]

Patricio Freire

Patricio Freire defended his Bellator featherweight title with a quick knockout win over Pedro Carvalho last night. Post-fight ‘Pitbull’ declared himself the best 145lb fighter in MMA, he said.

“I’m not the best featherweight in Bellator. I’m the best featherweight in the world. No other featherweight has my hands. I’m complete. Now, I have 11 knockouts and 11 submissions. There’s no other featherweight in the world that is as complete as I am.”

Bellator President Scott Coker was quick to back his fighters claims and even compared ‘Pitbull’ to legendary boxing champion Roberto Duran, he said.

“We are lucky to have him. He’s been a great fighter for us. He’s been a great ambassador for us. He was here even way before me. I’ll tell you what. I looked back and I saw a lot of his old clips over the last week, just looking around on our YouTube channels and different places. I said, ‘This guy reminds me of a young Roberto Duran’ if we had to put it in a boxing sense, right? He is a young Roberto Duran. He is not afraid of anybody. He’s going to bring it. I think he’s the best. Right now? He’s the best featherweight in the world.”

Freire is now set to square off against Emmanuel Sanchez in the Bellator featherweight grand prix semi-final. Sanchez picked up a decision win over Daniel Weichel last night.

“I watched (Emmanuel’s) whole fight,” Freire said. “I was warming up for my fight. Sanchez was looking good. He was very dynamic. I like his style (as) I said in the cage. But I’m better than him. He knows that.”

Coker revealed he is hoping to match ‘Pitbull’ and Sanchez in the first month of 2021, he said.

“I’m going to try to get this fight into the cage as soon as we can. We’d like to do the final sometime in April or May. That would be good timing I think. If we could get this fight to the cage in late January. I think that’d be ideal for us. Then you’d have February and March. April we’d have the final. It’s long overdue. Let’s put it that way.” (Transcribed by MMA Junkie)

Do you think Patricio Freire is the best 145lb fighter in MMA?

Patricio Freire Believes Michael Chandler Can ‘Beat All Those Guys’ In The UFC

Patricio Freire believes Michael Chandler will have success in the UFC. Chandler is the former Bellator lightweight champion but was knocked out by Freire last year. Since then, the two have had a rivalry but with Chandler off to the UFC, the Brazilian…

Patricio Freire believes Michael Chandler will have success in the UFC. Chandler is the former Bellator lightweight champion but was knocked out by Freire last year. Since then, the two have had a rivalry but with Chandler off to the UFC, the Brazilian believes “Iron” will have success. “It’s great for Chandler,” Freire told the […]

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