After a week in which four Brazilian fighters captured belts in a
span of four days – Glover
Teixeira in the UFC and Raush
Manfio, Bruno
Henrique Cappelozza and Antonio
Carlos Jr. in Professional Fighters League – Patricky
Freire will attempt to add to that collection on Friday when he
faces Peter
Queally for the vacant lightweight crown at Bellator 270.
Patricio
Freire, who recently vacated the 155-pound title, spoke with
Sherdog.com about his brother’s upcoming bout shortly after
arriving in Dublin with kickboxing coach Thiago Tourão and boxing
coach Everton
Lopes.
“We arrived on Sunday here in Dublin and as far as we could see
around the hotel area there was a lot of excitement for the event.
But they won’t have good memories after this weekend. I can
guarantee Patricky is in the best shape ever. For the first time,
he did a complete camp for a title fight. In the past, he stepped
in as a replacement on short notice.”
According to the former champion, a raucous pro-Queally crowd will
not be an issue for his brother.
“That´s nothing new for us. We have been fighting for Bellator for
more than 10 years and during all this time we always had the
audience against us,” Patricio said. “We always looked at that as
additional pressure for our opponents, who will be afraid to
disappoint family and fans.
“During this camp we worked a lot on both physical and
psychological matters. Patricky is ready for a war,” Patricio
added. “He is fighting six rounds better than he used to do three
rounds. You can bet the belt will move only 500 meters, from my
house to his.”
As far as his return to the Bellator cage after losing the title to
A.J.
McKee this past summer, Freire didn’t have any updates to
offer.
“McKee complained when I vacated the lightweight title. I don’t
understand his point,” Freire said. “Before doing that, I proposed
a rematch with him at a catchweight, with the winner taking both
the featherweight and lightweight belts and he didn’t accept. But
we will fight anyway. I´m just waiting for a call from
Bellator.”