Patricio Freire Wants Cross-Promotional Bouts, Targeting Max Holloway
Patricio Freire wants to create history with some cross-promotional fights.
The Bellator two-weight champion has long expressed his interest in facing the best featherweights and lightweights in the UFC.
That’s only further increased after his old foe Michael Chandler — who he defeated by knockout in 2019 — enjoyed an emphatic debut in the UFC last month.
While he won’t follow Chandler’s footsteps, “Pitbull” still hopes to make history one day — no matter how unlikely a UFC vs. Bellator crossover is.
“I definitely want to have a shot at those guys – especially the ones that people say I can’t beat or that would beat me easily,” Freire told MMA Junkie. “It’s not that the UFC interests me most, actually. I’d like to create history, something new in the sport – to create a big cross-promotion, like in boxing (where) you have the champions sometimes fighting each other. That’s what we’re missing in MMA right now. I’d like to be the guy to start that.
“… There’s something more that I would like to add to this sport. I’d like to be part of this big movement to make this change (and) force the UFC. I already beat your future champion. So let’s put everyone together and see who’s really the best. The fans would want that. The sport needs that. No more, ‘This promotion or that promotion?’ There is a business side of things, but people want to see the best fighting the best.”
While Freire has called for a shot against a host of UFC names in the past such as Alexander Volkanovski, Conor McGregor and even Khabib Nurmagomedov, one name in particular currently interests him and that’s former featherweight champion Max Holloway.
He’d even like to see Holloway switch sides and get paid more in Bellator.
“(The future) belongs to God,” Freire added. “We’ll see what’s next. Maybe Max Holloway gets tired of making pennies in the UFC and comes to Bellator so we can make a huge stadium show in Hawaii. We could see a change from the top guys from the UFC (coming) to Bellator.
“If they don’t think there is money here, that’s a lie. Bellator would be willing to pay for those who deserve it. We will see what the future reserves – where I’ll be at, where they’ll be at, and what Bellator will be willing to do. But I don’t have any worries. I know it’s going to do something good.”
Do you think Freire will ever get his wish?
