Yair Rodriguez is as shut because it will get to a UFC lifer. After debuting on the Mexican regional circuit as a youngster and combating a exceptional 9 instances over his first two years within the sport, the athletic, improvisational striker entered the orbit of MMA’s largest promoter at 21, profitable the primary Latin American version of The Final Fighter.
That was all the best way again in 2014. Nonetheless solely 32, Rodriguez’s career has spanned UFC eras, as he holds pre-pandemic wins over retired legends reminiscent of BJ Penn and Chan Sung Jung, and post-COVID victories over at present ranked contenders Brian Ortega and Josh Emmett. In 2019, he beat Jeremy Stephens, who left the corporate two years later, spent almost 4 years hopping round different promotions, and has now discovered his manner again in UFC. Title a notable UFC featherweight of the final decade and you’ll join Rodriguez to them.
Patricio “Pitbull” Freire? Completely different story. He’ll make his promotional debut this Saturday at UFC 314 — in a principal card combat towards Rodriguez — as a 37-year-old, having constructed one of many sport’s most spectacular, embellished, and underappreciated legacies because the face of since-defunct Bellator MMA. He’s unquestionably top-of-the-line fighters on this planet by no means to set foot in a UFC octagon. Maybe the greatest.
The query now, as he makes an attempt one final dash to a title after a bitter falling-out with the rival firm he pioneered, is what he has left. His career greatness is incontestable, but it surely’s been over a 12 months since we have seen him combat and also you’d be hard-pressed to discover one other athlete who might rival him in sheer late-career mileage whereas recurrently headlining playing cards in title fights.
Freire’s whole combat time from the start of 2022 by his most up-to-date bout in March 2024 is almost two hours. For some fighters, that’s a career. Freire did it after his thirty fifth birthday, with 37 skilled fights already underneath his belt. Seeing him make the stroll on a UFC pay-per-view might be an superior sight in and of itself for MMA purists who’ve adopted his storied career. However has he made the leap too late to present a brand new, far-broader viewers what made him so nice?
In his prime, Freire carried an immense quantity of energy at 145 kilos, taking advantage of a dense, thick-legged five-foot-six body. That’s what you’ll see in his most widespread highlights, reminiscent of his flash knockdown of Michael Chandler with a proper hook to the aspect of the pinnacle and one-shot knockouts of Diego Nunes and Daniel Weichel with tight lefts whereas withstanding strain.
However he’d snatch your neck with a quickness, too. That’s what Henry Corrales discovered when he kicked Freire out of his guard and promptly scrambled his manner into an arm-in guillotine that produced a close to instantaneous faucet. Identical goes for Daniel Straus, whose faucet was simply as fast when he was pulled into a decent guillotine after overextending himself only a contact whereas countering.
Freire’s huge expertise manifests itself in endurance and poise, as he typically lets challengers lead fights whereas hanging out simply past their attain, wanting to time entries with explosive counters. When he will get that timing proper, Freire creates punishing collisions, leveraging his opponent’s ahead momentum as they run proper into his fists. When he will get it mistaken, he’s liable to eat some photographs. However that isn’t a outcome he appears to thoughts a lot as he calmly circles out and resets.
That mettle ought to turn out to be useful towards Rodriguez, who seeks to scramble opponents with diverse, unpredictable assaults. A few of his greatest moments within the octagon have been the results of unorthodox strategies that catch fighters with photographs they don’t see coming. However there’s little that Freire, who received his first Bellator title earlier than Rodirguez even made his UFC debut, hasn’t seen earlier than.
After coming into Bellator in 2010, Freire went 24-6, received a pair of tournaments, loved three featherweight title reigns, and have become the corporate’s second double champion when he knocked out Chandler in 2019 to take his light-weight belt.
A 2021 loss to AJ McKee, who dropped Freire and completed him with a first-round guillotine as he tried to defend his featherweight title a sixth time, was thought to be a passing of the torch from one period to one other. However a then 34-year-old Freire returned in April 2022 to reclaim his belt and halt the 26-year-old McKee’s excellent report in a razor-thin, tactical, back-and-forth affair. Then, as if he was forcing time backwards, Freire ran off two extra wins earlier than the top of the 12 months.
But that’s when issues began to get bizarre. In an admirable-yet-ultimately-ill-advised try to transfer down to bantamweight and win a title in a 3rd division, Freire sacrificed each velocity and energy benefits, making a dramatic lower to problem a much-younger, true-135er and dropped a lop-sided five-rounder to Sergio Pettis in June 2023.
Then, solely six weeks later, he was steamrolled by Chihiro Suzuki in a four-days-notice, 153-pound catchweight bout on the other aspect of the world in Japan. Freire fought solely as soon as extra with Bellator — defending his featherweight title in a late-booked combat with an inexperienced and outgunned Jeremy Kennedy following a sequence of scrapped bouts — earlier than coming into a prolonged, public dispute with the promotion and its mother or father firm, PFL, over an absence of bookings that resulted in his launch early this 12 months.
Add all of it up and Freire’s career has been a perplexing, wayward journey for the final 24 months. This isn’t how anybody needed to see Bellator’s biggest fighter, the holder of nearly each report that issues within the firm, exit. Even considering extra broadly, a fighter this underappreciated by informal followers deserved higher.
Possibly a spirited UFC run can rectify the state of affairs. Chandler’s confirmed that with the best panache one doesn’t even have to win fights to win followers. There’s a chance right here for the promotion to get behind Freire, inform his nice story, and capitalize on what he has left to give. Freire’s definitely keen to combat, and ought to be energetic if he doesn’t endure any important accidents. And he’s been given a name-brand reserving in a outstanding place on a pay-per-view. The matchmakers have executed their half.
Can Freire nonetheless do his? In any fighter’s late 30s, it’s asking quite a bit. Rodriguez looks like he’s been round perpetually however he’s nonetheless a half-decade youthful than Freire, who hasn’t fought in a 12 months. Declines are precipitous in MMA. And Freire carries as a lot mileage as anybody going.
The clock is definitely ticking. It’s no coincidence that UFC booked Freire’s debut on the identical card as one combat for the vacant featherweight title and one other that includes his longtime rival Chandler, who defeated his brother, Patricky, twice in Bellator. Freire has two paths to journey popping out of UFC 314. And whichever he finally ends up on, it ought to occur rapidly.
Earn a stoppage or agency choice towards Rodriguez — at present the featherweight’s No. 5 ranked fighter — and Freire could possibly be elevated straight right into a title combat with the winner of Saturday’s principal occasion. Lose and an all-action rematch with Chandler is true there.
It’s not like Freire’s in for an extended UFC keep. He fought in Bellator for 14 years and he’ll flip 38 in July. It’s extraordinarily uncommon to see fighters this seasoned hold across the prime of lighter-weight divisions. Alex Volkanovski’s complete shtick of late has been mocking his personal comparatively superior age. He’s starred in commercials about it. And he’s a 12 months youthful than Freire.
Contemplating the 13 months he simply spent — some may say wasted — sidelined whereas making an attempt to power Bellator to give him both a combat or a manner out of his contract, you’ll be able to guess Freire’s keen to make up for misplaced time. Many may even see the UFC as an finish for Freire’s storied career. However you’ll be able to guess he sees it as a brand new starting.
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