After losing PPV slot, Bellator's Patricky Freire still dealing with hand issues

Patricky Freire desperately wanted to be part of tonight’s Bellator pay-per-view debut, but after a few training sessions with his injured hands, he knew it was virtually impossible.

Freire (13-5 MMA, 6-4 BMMA) was scheduled to fight Marcin Held (18-3 MMA, 7-2 BMMA) in a Season 10 lightweight tournament final at tonight’s Bellator 120 event, which takes place at Landers Center in Southaven, Miss.

After coming up short in two previous Bellator tourneys, the 28-year-old Brazilian hoped this would be the one in which he finally broke through and got an elusive title shot. Although not scheduled for PPV, his bout was Held was going to be part of the Spike TV prelims and (ideally) help push viewers to the PPV main card.

However, earlier this month, Bellator officials announced “Pitbull” had suffered a hand injury, and Held now meets Nate Jolly (13-5 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) in a non-tourney bout at tonight’s how.

Although not broken, Freire said the injury – or, more specifically, injuries since both hands are dinged up – made it impossible to be part of the card.

“I didn’t break anything,” he told MMAjunkie. “I simply injured both hands. I saw some speculation that they were broken, but that’s not the case.”

Freire initially fought through the pain. In the first two rounds of the tourney, not far removed from a 1-4 skid that put his job in jeopardy, Freire appeared to get back on track with vicious knockouts of Davis Rickels and Derek Campos (check out the crushing blow against Rickels below). But there were issues even back then.

“When I fought David Rickels, both of my hands were already hurt,” he said. “It was starting to get better, but then on my last fight (against Campos), it got worse again. I re-injured them during the fight itself. Afterward they were swollen. An X-ray at Bellator’s request showed no breaks. I couldn’t do further exams because I had to travel. When I got back to Brazil, I couldn’t box or apply submissions.”

How bad has it been?

“When I arrived in Natal, I could only kick and knee,” he said. “Even rolling on the ground was painful. I could not grip or push.”

Earlier this week, Freire met with doctors, and they believe he may have some ligament damage that needs to be addressed. A time table isn’t set for his return, but Freire (and Bellator officials) hope they can still hold the tourney final with Held later this year.

For the latest on Bellator 120, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.