Earlier this month, Patricio “Pitbull” Freire successfully defended his Bellator MMA featherweight belt with an entertaining but grueling unanimous decision over Emmanuel Sanchez at Bellator 209 in Israel. It’s his second title defense since winning the belt back from Daniel Straus in April 2017, and fourth overall through two reigns.
The 31-year-old spoke to Bloody Elbow about the Sanchez win and how it compared with his other title defenses in terms of toughest title fights in his career, and he believes it’s among his most challenging, especially given his post-fight diagnosis.
“This one [vs. Sanchez], the two fights against [Pat] Curran and the second one against [Daniel] Straus were fights I had to do more than my maximum,” Freire said.