The
Pitbull Brothers team will have two veterans making debuts in
new promotions this weekend.
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First, Leandro
Higo will make his
Professional Fighters League debut on Friday in the evening’s
main event against Josh
Rettinghouse. The next day, Patricio
Freire will make his Octagon debut against Yair
Rodriguez at UFC
314.
Higo, who has won five of his last six bouts, discussed sharing a
camp with Patricio “Pitbull” and offered insight into both of their
upcoming fights in a recent interview with Sherdog.
“I´m really happy to make my PFL debut fighting in the main event.
I was so lucky to have Patricio making his Octagon debut in the
same weekend, so the camp couldn’t have been better,” the Bellator
veteran said. “Since I was going to fight a Russian initially, we
brought a wrestler from Kazakhstan, who helped me a lot.”
According to Higo, his approach did not change when Rettinghouse
replaced original foe Magomed
Magomedov.
“Josh is pretty well-rounded and already fought a couple of tough
guys in World Series of Fighting and M-1 Global, like Marlon
[Moraes] and Alexis
Vila,” Higo said. “Of course he will be hungry to beat me, but
I’m ready to use the same game plan against him we worked on for
the Russian, which is to hit him hard, take him down and take his
neck out.”
The Brazilian declined to look ahead in the PFL bantamweight
tournament, instead choosing to focus on the task in front of
him.
. “The experience of having participate in Bellator grand prix
taught me that in a tournament you always have to focus on each
challenge you have ahead of you. After I beat Josh I will think
about the semifinal,” he said.
Meanwhile, Higo has high expectations for Freire’s UFC debut
against Rodriguez.
“Patricio is an example of work ethic for all of us on the team,”
Higo said. “Yair is really tough, but I think his style fits
Patricio´s. I’m sure he will leave that Octagon with a KO win.
[He’s] starting to write his legacy now in UFC, as he always
dreamed.”