Patricky Freire on recent depression, stunning KO, callout of Melvin Guillard

Patricky Freire was not in a good place mentally after his loss to Derek Anderson at Bellator 147. The defeat led to issues with his family and even physical manifestations of stress.

One event later, Freire (15-7 MMA, 8-6 BMMA) got back on the winning track.

On Friday at Bellator 148, Freire scored a stunning knockout of Ryan Couture (10-4 MMA, 2-1 BMMA). The lightweight bout was a part of the main card at Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif., which aired on Spike.

Following the massive lefthand counter that left Couture unconscious on the canvas, Freire celebrated until being alerted his opponent still had not recovered from the shot.

“I was celebrating, and after some time my coaches told me that he could be in bad shape because he hadn’t woken up,” Freire told MMAjunkie. “That type of thing is worrisome. I wouldn’t want something bad to happen to me, and I don’t wish it on anyone.”

The win was bigger than simply improving his record.

Freire told MMAjunkie about the struggles he faced after the rematch loss to Anderson and ahead of the bout with Couture.

“It had been a long time that I hadn’t felt so down after a loss,” Freire said. “The last time I recall feeling this way was after I broke my arm against Lloyd ‘Cupcake’ Woodard. I was sad and angry. Even my motivation and mood at home changed. That’s not good. To erase that, only a victory, and who knows – a knockout. A fast victory would leave me happy no matter how it happens. I was very sad and bothered. But now it’s time to move past that.”

The knockout certainly fit the bill for moving past the controversial defeat.

During his in-cage interview after the loss, Freire once again spoke of the mental toll the bout took on him, and he explained that the stress also showed physically.

“I was very upset since that victory was taken out of my hands when I won that fight and hurt my opponent,” Freire told MMAjunkie. “The dermatitis was because of that loss.”

Soon after his latest win, Freire headed to social media to call out Melvin Guillard (32-15-2 MMA, 0-1 BMMA), who was supposed to fight Mike Bronzoulis (18-9 MMA, 0-2 BMMA) on Feb. 19 at Bellator 149. However, with Bronzoulis reportedly out of the bout, perhaps Freire will get his wish, though his latest tweet suggests it might not happen (via Twitter):

While Freire always has eye on the lightweight belt, he said he’s not going to push for a title fight. Instead, he’ll make his case in the cage.

“I just want to fight,” he said. “I stopped talking about the belt, and just want to beat everyone they put in front of me, no matter who it is. The fight for the belt will happen at the right time.”

For more on Bellator 148, check out the MMA Events section of the site.