Patricio Freire: Bellator Lightweight Belt Will Be Moving From My House to My Brother’s

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.”