Patricio Freire is the Bellator featherweight and lightweight champion, but he was looking to become the bantamweight champion as well. “Pitbull” was hoping to fight newly crowned champion, Kyoji Horiguchi, but he has been told that fight is unlikely to happen.
“I requested a title shot at 135 pounds against the winner of that fight,” Freire said to MMA Fighting. “But it appears to me that Bellator has no intention doing that. What’s next for me now is the 145-pound grand prix, which starts in October.”
Now that he is focused on the tournament, Patricio Freire wants a hard bracket. He expects to face one of the top featherweights first as his title is on the line and wants someone who is deserving of a title shot.
“My (first) opponent has to be someone that deserves a title shot. At least the first one — the second one will depend on the tournament bracket,” Freire said. “If you’re taking rankings into consideration, three guys are deserving, in my opinion: Corrales, A.J. McKee and Archuleta. They are on a good winning streak. I think it should be one of them. I’d rather fight someone new now, to not get a rematch right away.”
“I’ve already beat Henry Corrales, but he was a tough one. They are all tough,” he continued. “People might say A.J. McKee is the most dangerous one for the wins he has, but he’s fought many average fighters, some weak fighters, so I don’t know. They are all dangerous. There’s no fool there.”
Although he is focused on the Grand Prix, “Pitbull” makes it clear he wants to fight for the bantamweight title one day and become a triple-champ.
