“I was pissed,” Patricio Pitbull reveals the time he felt betrayed by the Bellator MMA organization and almost left
Follow Us
Patricio Pitbull almost left Bellator
Patricio Pitbull is a Bellator MMA legend but the Brazilian was very close to coming out of the organization when his reign began as a champion.
For more than a decade, Patricio Pitbull has managed to stay on top in the Bellator organization. The Brazilian became the champion of two divisions, featherweight and lightweight and dominated his opponents. Bellator would not have wanted to lose someone like Pitbull.
In 2012, when Bellator was run by Bjorn Rebney, Patricio Freire and Patricky Freire felt disrespected by the organization and were on the verge of falling out from Bellator. In a recent episode of the podcast, Trocação Franca, Patricio spoke about his past with the Bellator boss.
When Patricky Pitbull was asked to fight former lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez at Bellator 76, but the company failed to keep their end of the deal which led to tension. “It was like, ‘We’ll put Patricky to beat up Eddie Alvarez because we know Patricky is a badass and won’t back out.’ Cool, but that didn’t happen and Patricky got knocked out,” said Pitbull on the Portuguese podcast.
Patricio Pitbull reveals his brother got paid “almost nothing”
The KO loss to Eddie was Pitbull’s brother Patricky’s first ever knockout loss in his career. Despite the disappointment, the Freire family understood it was part of the sport. “No problem, we understand it, the organization has its costs and everything. My brother was knocked out in the fight, the first knockout loss of his career,” said Freire.
“When he went there to get his purse, they invented a bunch of stuff to deduct and Patricky left with a miserable check. He should have gotten paid like $15,000, I don’t know how much it was and left with $2,500, something like that. Almost nothing,” said Patricio Pitbull.
“I was pissed. It was one of the first things I said. ‘Brother, these guys are a bunch of clowns, f*ck them, I wanna leave this sh*t.’ That was one of the reasons. And other things I can’t remember right now, but that’s one [reason] I have printed in my head.” [translated from Portuguese by MMA Fighting]
Stay Updated!
Prateek Athanur
(2944 Articles Published)