Chandler-Freire fight about Bellator legacies
CHICAGO – Scott Coker has heard this tale before: This next fight might be the biggest in his company’s history.
This time, though, the Bellator president might wind up believing it, and the fighters in the champion versus champion Bellator 221 main event believe it, too.
Lightweight champion Michael Chandler (19-4 MMA, 16-4 BMMA) takes on featherweight champ Patricio Freire (28-4, 16-4), who moves up 10 pounds to go after Chandler’s 155-pound title in the headliner at Allstate Arena in Rosemont. The main card streams on DAZN.
“What I appreciate about this fight is when you have two champions in weight classes close in proximity like this, and they’ve both been so dominant — just killers in their weight division — and they’re willing to get it on and put it all on the line,” Coker told USA TODAY on Thursday. “There’s some heat on this fight. These guys don’t like each other . ... I think this could be one of the greatest battles you guys will see in the history of Bellator.”
Chandler is a three-time lightweight champion for Bellator and won the title back from Brent Primus this past December in Hawaii. The only time he’s lost the past four years was to Primus in a fight in which a leg injury was as much the culprit as anything.
He also has a pair of wins over Freire’s lightweight brother Patricky, which has helped lead to some of the bad blood between the two.
“I can tell you what — if he beat up my brother twice, I would not like him at all,” Chandler said. “Then you sprinkle in the fact he and I both have been close and in the same room, on the same fight cards, in the same locker rooms, at the same photo shoots — we’ve been around each other too much. We’ve rubbed shoulders way too much. There’s never been a friendly atmosphere there because obviously I’m a rival of his brother’s.”
Freire, from Brazil, said it’s a more than just the fact he’s got wins — and a highlight-reel knockout — of his brother.
“It’s not because (he beat Patricky),” Freire said. “Everyone knows he fought my brother two times and he beat him, but after the second fight he talked (expletive) about my family. That’s why he’s going to pay.”
A win for Chandler would come as more than a 2-1 favorite, so a fight he’s supposed to win against a smaller opponent moving up in weight. One for Freire would be monumental and make him just the second concurrent two-division champion in Bellator history. Both fighters have been with the promotion since its early days, and whoever gets his hand raised can make a serious claim to be the best fighter in Bellator history.
“In my mind, I (already) am the best fighter in Bellator history,” Freire said. “This time I am not thinking about the belt, about my legacy and solidifying my spot as the greatest in the organization, because I already know I am that.”
Chandler said he’s aware there’s legacy at stake, to go along with his title.
“This is the right time for this fight to happen,” Chandler said. “This is the biggest fight Bellator could have made. This is the biggest fight in Bellator history.”