Patricky Freire Believes Cage Will Work in His Favor Against Roberto Satoshi

Patricky Freire was not disappointed by the last-minute change to the Bellator MMA x Rizin 2 main event.

On Tuesday night, it was announced that Rizin lightweight champion Roberto Satoshi de Souza would replace A.J. McKee in the grand prix bout, which will serve as the headliner for the Bellator portion of Saturday’s card at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

"The most important thing for me is to fight and advance in that grand prix and I’m glad Satoshi, the current Rizin champion, agreed to step in and face me on such short notice for both of us. I was told about A.J. McKee’s (medical issue) on Monday morning. He just told Bellator on Sunday. He was probably trying his best to recover until the last minute, but unfortunately it was not possible.”

Freire acknowledged that he will have to make some tactical changes against a new foe.

"Satoshi is a totally different opponent,” Freire said. “I did my whole camp focused on a southpaw striker. Satoshi is an orthodox grappler with great jiu-jitsu skills, with 10 wins via submission. (He is) a very dangerous opponent in the first round, but I´m also a BJJ black belt and the cage will favor my game. The opponent doesn’t matter. My goal is the same: advance to the grand prix finals and get the belt and $1 million prize.”

Freire is also excited that his brother, Patricio Freire, is a late addition to the Rizin portion of the card.

"It´s been 16 years since we fought together and I’m happy that we will have that opportunity again in Japan, the country we always dreamed of fighting together in one day, since we started because of Pride,” he said. “Being here with my brother definitely motivates us to give a great show to the Japanese fans on Saturday.”