Patricio Freire was ready to fight AJ McKee right there in the middle of the cage
Interview with Patricio Freire above
Patricio Freire has become quite the big name in the MMA world after besting Emmanuel Sanchez by submission at Bellator 255. The Brazilian finished the fight in the first round and cemented his place as Bellator’s “GOAT.”
Sanchez had originally faced ‘Pitbull’ back in 2018, losing the fight by unanimous decision. The first fight wasn’t an easy one as Sanchez had managed to hurt Freire early before the Brazilian took the upper hand.
Now he’s set to take on the undefeated AJ McKee in the last round of Bellator’s featherweight tournament. The two men met in the middle of the cage and exchanged some words.
Tempers flared as the two posed in the middle to help promote the fight. The two men jawed at each other before security was forced to step in and make sure the two didn’t actually come to blows.
They went back and forth for a little bit with Bellator allowing the two the time to really build up their rivalry. The banter was purely related to fighting.
“He was saying I was already defeated by him… I looked into his eyes and said ‘hey man, I know you are afraid, you just saw a body in the cage now and I know are afraid of me.’ He said ‘let’s see.’ I told him ‘if you want [to] let’s do it now.’ ‘I’m already in my gloves, the tv is here, let’s fight!’
Freire was truly ready to throw down that again that night. It didn’t matter that he had already fought Sanchez just a few minutes earlier.
If anything, for him, that fight only served as a warmup before getting to the main course. A terrifying thought considering Sanchez and McKee are two of the best featherweights in the world.
“Yeah I was just warming up,” Freire told MyMMANews on fighting McKee in the middle of the cage. “[I was thinking about] winning the fight. To face good challengers and make great victories.
