Michael Bisping questions if Patricio Freire has suffered too much damage to impact his UFC 314 performance.
Freire (36-7 MMA, 0-0 UFC) makes his octagon debut against former interim featherweight champion Yair Rodriguez (16-5 MMA, 10-4 UFC) in Saturday’s main card opener at Kaseya Center from Miami (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN/Disney+, ESPN+).
Freire has had a long-tenured career at Bellator, capturing both the featherweight and lightweight titles simultaneously. Although “Pitbull” has a wealth of experience and standout wins throughout his career, the 37-year-old has lost two of his past three fights – one of them by first-round knockout.
“Can the old guy get it done? Patricio ‘Pitbull,’ 37 years old coming over from Bellator, where I think he was a four-time champion,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “Biggest win probably (was) when he knocked out ‘Iron’ Mike Chandler in the very first round, vicious right hand. He’s got good jiu-jitsu, but he’s 37 years old. There’s a lot of wear and tear, there’s a lot of miles on the clock, and that’s not surprising when you look at the amount of experience.
“Forty-three professional fights, 36 wins, seven losses, but he has been knocked out twice. However, when you’ve fought that many times, there’s no problem with that. Of course, he’ll be taking on the one and only Yair Rodriguez, one of Mexico’s finest. This man is not to be underestimated. He fought for the belt before against Alexander Volkanovski, didn’t go his way, got stopped in the third round, and then he got stopped again against Brian Ortega. He’s trying to prove is he still relevant in the division.”
Outside of Movsar Evloev, it’s muddy waters at the top of the featherweight division. That’s why Bisping thinks the next title challenger could emerge from this matchup.
“Are either of these guys going to be the next man to fight for the featherweight strap because guess what? That’s what’s at stake here,” Bisping continued. “One of these guys might be the next person to fight for the belt because Volkanovski wants to be active – that’s if he gets the job done.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 314.
