Patricky 'Pitbull' on shutting up critics, Marcin Held at Bellator 126, and chasing a title

After a delay from the spring, Patricky Freire finally gets another shot at a Bellator MMA tournament title, and he’s putting some pressure on himself.

“My happiness is still not complete,” “Pitbull” told MMAjunkie of his semifinal victory in April. “I will only be truly content when I win the tournament. I’ve already gone through these emotions and I felt less happy than the other times I found victory in the cage. There wasn’t much celebration.”

Freire (13-5 MMA, 6-4 BMMA) knocked out Derek Campos in the spring to set up a finals bout against Marcin Held (19-3 MMA, 8-2 BMMA) that was scheduled for the promotion’s first pay-per-view at Bellator 120. But a hand injury forced Freire out of the fight, and pushed the lightweight tourney final to Friday at Bellator 126.

Bellator 126 takes place at Grand Canyon University Arena in Phoenix with a main card on Spike TV following prelims on Spike.com. Freire vs. Held is booked for the co-main event slot on Spike TV.

In Bellator’s fourth season, Freire fought Michael Chandler in the lightweight tournament final, but lost a decision. Chandler went on to win the belt. After a 50-second win over Kurt Pellegrino his next time out, though, Freire went on a three-fight slide with losses to Lloyd Woodard, Eddie Alvarez and Derek Anderson.

In many ways, “Pitbull” was largely written off by many people. But he got back in the win column against Edson Berton, then knocked out both David Rickels and and Campos to make a couple statements about whether or not he was still a viable contender.

“I’m sure I shut the mouths of a lot of critics by gaining three straight wins and two knockouts – and the mouths of a lot of people that said they rooted for me and were with me in the tough moments, but this time were rooting against me or thinking I would lose,” he said.

A win over Held on Friday would do another bit of mouth-shutting. Oddsmakers have installed him as just a mild underdog to Held, a dangerous submission specialist from Poland.

Freire believes this fight may run counter to what people think – that Held will go to the ground and be the more dangerous of the two there.

“It could play out like (Mauricio) ‘Shogun’ (Rua) vs. Rogerio Nogueira,” Freire said of two fellow Brazilians. “‘Shogun’ was the striker, but he did better on the ground, and Rogerio was the ground fighter, but did better on the feet.”

So does that mean Freire has some grappling surprises in store for Held, should the fight play out on the canvas?

“Fans haven’t seen much of my jiu-jitsu because I like to stand and trade,” Freire said. “If I’m winning in the standup, why will I take it to the ground? … Marcin Held has a very good ground game. He can do what he wants, he can impose his game and submit his opponents. I think there are some things he can improve. He’s a young guy, but his submission game is very good – in fact it’s excellent. Kudos to him. You can’t take anything away from him.”

But?

“He’s a tad predictable,” Freire said. “His jiu-jitsu is very efficient and very aggressive, and he’s always looking for the submission. But at the same time, it’s a disadvantage because it makes him very predictable.

“I believe my grappling is better than his anyway, and my standup is better than his, my jiu-jitsu is better than his and my conditioning is better than his. He’s got one key submission, and it’s predictable, so it’s not very difficult to prepare for his game.”

With his brother Patricio “Pitbull” now a Bellator champion after beating Pat Curran for the featherweight title earlier this month, Patricky believes the time could come Bellator has a pair of brothers with titles around their waists – something that was talked about from the moment the Brazilians came to the Stateside promotion.

It starts with a tournament win, of course, and then he can think about facing the winner of the November fight between interim champion Will Brooks and former champ Chandler.

“To win this tournament would be seeing half of my dream come true,” he said. “In winning it, I will do everything to correct my flaws: I will use the money to bring in coaches or to travel around the world to a place where I can improve my wrestling. I’m sure if I win the tournament that everyone in my weight class will know that I have the capabilities to become the champion. At any moment, I can finish a fight. They know of the danger I present and I know I’m capable of it. So I will do everything in my power to become a complete fighter and be even more dangerous.

“It was a great feeling to see my brother Patricio become a world champion. I couldn’t be happier for him. And now it is my turn to join him as a champion. He was the first ‘Pitbull’ brother to bring a belt home, but he won’t be the last. First I have to get through Marcin Held, and then I’m coming for that belt.”

For more on Bellator 126, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.

(Christian Stein contributed to this report.)