Patricio Freire 'Absolutely Certain' He Would Beat Max Holloway

Patricio Freire cemented himself as perhaps the best fighter in Bellator MMA earlier this month, but he believes he is much more than that.

“Pitbull” knocked out Michael Chandler at Bellator 221 earlier this month, adding Chandler’s Bellator MMA lightweight belt to his own featherweight title and joining Ryan Bader as the only men in the promotion’s history to hold two titles simultaneously. The 31-year-old Brazilian signed a new a multi-year, multi-fight contract extension with the organization back in February and Freire’s first fight of the new deal was a 155-pound title bout against Chandler.

Freire believes that his two-division dominance in Bellator would carry over to the Ultimate Fighting Championship as well. The newly crowned “champ-champ” recently told MMAJunkie.com that he is “absolutely certain” he could beat UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway in a hypothetical super fight.

“I’d beat him,” Freire said. “That’s a fact. Like I was certain I’d beat Michael Chandler, I am absolutely certain I’d beat Max Holloway. For me, he’s the same Max Holloway who fought Conor McGregor -- and who lost to Conor McGregor. For me, he’s that same guy, he hasn’t changed much. However, he’s very well-rounded. He’s very tall, and he utilizes his reach very well. And his boxing is very sharp. So, fighters haven’t been able to match him technically. He knocked Jose Aldo out twice with pure boxing. Speaking as a boxer, he managed to paralyze Aldo with that.”

Holloway, who is No. 5 in the UFC’s lightweight rankings in addition to being the featherweight champ, is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Dustin Poirier for the interim lightweight title in mid-April. The 27-year-old Hawaiian, who is currently riding a 13-fight win streak at featherweight, will return to the division to defend his belt against the veteran Frankie Edgar on July 27 at UFC 240 in Edmonton, Alberta.