Bellator champ Patricky Freire confident he'll finish Usman Nurmagomedov

One year after capturing the Bellator lightweight belt against Peter Queally in Dublin, Patricky Freire will defend his title against Usman Nurmagomedov, the cousin of Khabib Nurmagomedov, on Nov. 18.

While the fight has not been officially announced by the promotion, “Pitbull” confirmed the recently reported booking in an interview with Sherdog.com. He was originally scheduled to defend his belt against Sidney Outlaw at Bellator 283 before being forced to withdraw from the bout.

"Unfortunately I had to withdraw from my last fight with Sidney Outlaw due to a [pubic bone injury],” Freire said. “But I started intensive treatment since then with my physiotherapist and now I’m already doing light sparring.”

Freire says he was taken by surprise when a Bellator matchmaker texted him the name of his next opponent.

"For everything they are doing in the division and also based on their position in the rankings, I was pretty sure [Tofiq] Musayev or Alexandr Shabliy were the next in line, but there’s no question the Nurmagomedov surname weighed a lot on their decision.”

According to Freire, the Nurmagomedov name won’t affect him when they square off inside the cage.

"If he is Nurmagomedov, I’m a Pitbull,” Freire said. “When I enter the cage, it doesn't matter the surname, my goal is always to get the knockout. I just need one good punch to finish his game plan. That fight will not reach the fifth round.”

Even though he is confident, “Pitbull” knows that American Kickboxing Academy grapplers must be respected.

"I have no doubt that when he feels the power of my hands, he will try to take me down, so of course wrestling will be one of the most important disciplines in this camp,” Freire said.

According to Freire, as soon as the fight was confirmed, coach Eric Albarracin started to look for high-level wrestlers to help him.

"He already got an American wrestler, the son of an Olympic champion and a top wrestler from Kyrgyzstan that has a similar style to Dagestani [wrestlers],” Freire said.

The fact that his brother, Patricio Freire, is slated to defend the featherweight crown against Adam Borics on Oct. 1 doesn’t change much for Patricky’s camp.

"Of course we help each other in all areas, but not sparring,” he said. “Our trainers say that is not advisable to put two Pitbulls together in a cage because they hurt each other, and past experience shows that they are right. The most important thing for us is to reach the day of the fight in our prime conditions and finish 2022 with the two Bellator belts here in Natal.”