Veteran Bellator lightweight Patricky “Pitbull” Freire will look to get the bad taste out of his mouth following his lost last month as he is going to face Ryan Couture tomorrow night at Bellator 148.
Pitbull (14-7) lost a split decision to Derek Anderson at Bellator 147 and the former Bellator lightweight tournament finalist has alternated wins and losses in his last four fights. Both of those defeats have come by decision and two of his last three wins have come by stoppage.
Initially, Bellator announced that Couture would be facing Anderson on this card. Shortly after that announcement was made, it was revealed that Anderson was out of the fight and Pitbull would be stepping in for Anderson to face Couture.
“I had been asking Bellator to fight on the Rizin card and also to fight on the Royce Gracie card and every two months after that,” Pitbull told The MMA Report. “The Rizin fight didn’t come through and I was already looking at this January card. When news broke out [Josh] Koscheck’s fight had been cancelled, I contacted them to be on the card. I didn’t know I was entering as a replacement, my thought at that day was that Ryan was stepping up to fight me. The day after we found out he’d fight Derek Anderson and from what we gathered his fight with Anderson was booked and cancelled that same day. Not that it really matters, I’m ready to go in there, I was already training anyway.”
On a recent episode of The MMA Report Podcast, Couture was a guest on the show and explained that a key to the victory for him in this fight was to push the pace and test the cardio of Pitbull. With that being said, what does Pitbull see as the key to victory for him? Simply put, worry about what he needs to do and not worry about what his opponent may attempt to accomplish.
“I have to worry about doing my own things,” he explained. “Go in there to do what I plan to do instead of worrying about what he can do. I’ll be the one starting and finishing things, I’m ready to take this fight to every area.”
Last year did not end well for Patricky and his brother Patricio. Just one month before Patricky lost to Anderson at Bellator 147, Patricio lost the Bellator featherweight title against Daniel Straus at Bellator 145. A cliché in sports you hear is, “the past is the past” and the athlete “is moving forward.” That is clearly the case for both of the Pitbull brothers as Patricky explained that 2016 will be the year for them.
“This will be our year. The belts will be coming home with us,” he explained. “I plan to be active, I want to fight at least 6 times this year, some at lightweight and others at featherweight and see where I’m best at. Whichever title shot comes first I’ll take it.”
A win over Couture tomorrow night would be a big step towards a potential fight with current Bellator lightweight champion Will Brooks. The two have exchanged words over social media and there was a physical altercation between the fighters in a hotel in November. With a victory over Couture, will Pitbull be calling out the champion?
“I’d fight Brooks today. But as the judges screwed up the result of my last fight, I don’t know if it would sound right to demand a title shot,” Pitbull stated. “People only look at the result, he’ll probably be the first to say I lost the last fight even though we all know I won. So you’ll probably hear something among the lines of me saying I’ll fight Will Brooks anywhere and anytime and that I hope Bellator keeps me fighting often this year.”