February 20, 2025 5: 10 pm ET
“Pitbull” is headed to a new cage.
After more than a decade of carving out his legacy as one of the greatest to ever compete outside of the UFC, former Bellator double champion Patricio Freire is now a UFC fighter.
Speaking to MMA Junkie for the first time since Dana White announced the news Wednesday, Freire (36-7 MMA, 0-0 UFC) said the period of time between his PFL departure and UFC onboarding presented much more uncertainty than anticipated.
“To be very honest with you, we thought that the moment we got my release, the UFC would sign me,” Freire said Thursday through an interpreter. “Everyone, the fans, the media were telling it. It was pretty obvious. Everything was expecting to see an announcement that same day. But that’s not what happened. We had some barriers to overcome. There was a particular person from the UFC brass who wasn’t very happy with signing me. He was against it because of my age. In the end, he ended up being convinced. I was born the exact same day as Alex ‘Poatan,’ and he is champion, the biggest name right now. That was one of the arguments.”
UFC brass was split on adding Freire to the roster. Ultimately, everyone on the promotion’s side warmed up to the idea as Freire said he repeatedly accepted matchups that opposing UFC contenders rejected.
“One of the things I believe favored me in all this was that a couple weeks after our first meeting, they asked if I would fight a certain fighter and that fighter, a ranked fighter said no,” Freire said. “Then they offered me a few other options, and I said yes to all of them, and they said no. As the UFC saw that this old guy was saying yes to all those young guys and the young guys were running away, they were like, ‘We have a guy that’s for real here. So let’s sign him.’ I think that helped change the mi