The Bellator featherweight champion sounds like he’d do whatever he could to take on his former UFC counterpart in a sporting context. Now that Jose Aldo has oficially retired from the MMA, Patricio Freire is intrigued by the idea that his fellow countryman doesn’t seem to be entirely done with combat sports.
While Aldo is still young enough to compete, Freire tells Ag Fight he would more than welcome taking on Jose in the boxing ring. A skilled striker himself, ‘Pitbull’ pointed out how many years he has been honing his hands and thinks a match against Aldo could be interesting for both parts.
“I’m sure he’s headed to boxing, that’s obvious to me. He likes that sport a lot, he’s been training with the navy a lot,” Freire explained. “It seems like he has had some beef with (former boxing champion) Popo Freitas. I don’t know. Let’s see what happens. There’s room for everyone. He does his job, I do mine. Then, if it happens, it happens. I’ve been training boxing with the Brazilian national team for 12 years now. I like boxing, too. It’s one of the arts we use in MMA that I like to practice the most. I’m open (to face Aldo in a boxing fight). Any fight, a marbles game. I’m in.”
In his last outing, Freire (34-5) defended his title yet again—defeating Adam Borics via unanimous decision at Bellator 286. Before that, the 35-year-old also scored a unanimous decision win over A.J. McKee, in April of this year. The victory came right after a submission loss to the ‘Mercenary’ when they first met in July 2021.
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