Bellator's Patricio "Pitbull" Freire recently revealed that he had pulled out of his fight with former featherweight champion Pat Curran just weeks before he won the bout via unanimous decision.
The fight took place on Sept. 5 and would mark the first time that the Brazilian won a major title, according to Yahoo! Sports. The decision to pull out was made due to an injury Freire suffered to his knee during a Bellator photo shoot, and he told the promotion that he would be unable to compete in his rematch with Curran
"I actually canceled the fight a couple weeks before the event, I said I couldn't do it," Freire said in an interview with Guilherme Cruz. "I had the worst camp of my life. I was so injured I couldn't throw a kick, and then I injured my shoulder and I couldn't throw a punch, too. I usually train twice a day, and I was barely training once a day. I had fever every time I stopped training. It was terrible."
The 27-year-old fighter said Bellator wanted to hold off canceling the bout and contacted him several days before to see if he could still fight, MMAFrenzy.com reported.
"I was in New York for a Bellator photo shoot and they asked me to throw some flying knees, but I was landing on the concrete. I did it 30 times, and ended up injuring my meniscus," he said. "I couldn't train. I went to the doctor and he said I couldn't fight. Bellator took me to another doctor and he said the same thing, so I canceled the fight. I forgot about my diet, forgot about the fight."
Freire added that it was possible that Curran knew about his injury since Bellator tried to get a new challenger for his title, Yahoo! Sports reported.
Ultimately, Freire decided to get back into the fight thanks to pressure from his manager, Jorge Guimaraes, and more from Bellator.
"My manager Jorge Guimaraes told me 'man, let's do this, you are ready. Every fighter has injuries. Get some rest, make weight, and let's do this,'" Freire said. "I sparred, did five rounds, so I decided to take the fight."
Freire said he will not need to get surgery for his knee injury, and that he will only need rehab. He added, however, that he might need surgery to fix his nose.
