Eric Albarracin, the wrestling coach of Patricio
Freire and Patricky
Freire, will spend about half of 2022 in Natal, Brazil.
Advertisement
After actively participating in Patricio “Pitbull’s” entire camp
for his recent fight with Adam
Borics, “Captain America” returned to Rio Grande do Norte,
where he is helping Patricky “Pitbull” prepare for his title
defense against Usman
Nurmagomedov at Bellator 288 on Nov. 18.
“Patricky is ready in all areas. Kennedy Monday’s help has been
really important in this camp. It will be a confrontation between
two great schools, and I’m sure Patricky will return with the belt
for Natal,” Albarracin told Sherdog.com.
In regards to another Brazil vs. Dagestan matchup, Albarracin
shared his thoughts on the lightweight championship fight between
Charles
Oliveira and Islam
Makhachev at UFC 280 on Saturday.
“If Charles does what he said and pulls guard, it will make
Makhachev’s life easier,” Albarracin said. “These Russians have
excellent positional control from top position and are used to
training with great jiu-jitsu champions in California. But if he
doesn’t accept falling on the bottom, [is] defending takedowns and
frustrating Islam, standing up again in case of being taken down,
he has everything to impose his best standing game and come back
with the belt.”
After Patricky “Pitbull” makes his title defense against
Nurmagomedov at Bellator 288, Albarracin said he plans to go back
to Brazil to help Deiveson
Figueiredo train for his fourth meeting with Brandon
Moreno at UFC 283 before returning to the United States to
assist with preparation for Henry
Cejudo’s Octagon return.
“Henry will show once again that an Olympic champion athlete is one
in a billion,” Albarracin said. “I believe he will come back
fighting for the bantamweight belt [against the Aljamain
Sterling–T.J.
Dillashaw winner]. Then he could fight for the featherweight
title with [Alexander] Volkanovski. I thought this news that Dana
gave was excellent that Volkanovski will be the next lightweight
challenger, probably fighting in Australia. Imagine if he wins
there and fights next with Cejudo….”
Another big name from the wrestling world that has caught
Albarracin’s eye since making his MMA debut is Bo
Nickal.
“World and Olympic champions like Cejudo and Nickal are
distinguished athletes. Nickal has been training MMA for almost
four years. I sincerely believe he would beat [Israel] Adesanya
today, but obviously he still has time to evolve further. So I have
no doubt that he will be the future UFC middleweight champion.”