It was not the most entertaining fight of his career, but Patricio Freire managed to get the job done with rather ease at Rizin vs. Bellator. In a superfight against Rizin’s featherweight champion, Kleber Koike, ‘Pitbull’ used his superior striking to nullify his opponent’s dangerous ground game and brought home a unanimous decision win. On Twitter, fighters and pundits reacted to the match.
Man, Kleber is briiiiinging it on the feet here despite being on the backfoot. This is getting very interesting. #RIZIN40 #BellatorVsRizin #RIZINvsBellator
— Drake Riggs (@DrakeRiggs_) December 31, 2022
Oh man, Koike gets the clinch and takes the fight to the ground. Lands on top position and is his best position so far in this fight but Pitbull gets right back up. #mma #bellator #rizin #japan #nye
— MMA Supremacy (@MMASupremacy) December 31, 2022
Pitbull comfortably winning, not really doing anything more than he has to. Kleber needs something big in R3
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) December 31, 2022
Am I crazy? I see no problem with Koike getting the W there. Not sure what specific score I’d give, very interesting fight. Didn’t think it was as nearly as one-sided as commentary made it seem for Pitbull. #RIZIN40 #BellatorVsRizin #RIZINvsBellator
— Drake Riggs (@DrakeRiggs_) December 31, 2022
Way too little, way too late from Kleber. Patricio shut him down basically everywhere. Clear win despite Koike raising his hand for some reason.
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) December 31, 2022
Pitbull x Koike did not deliver.
— Guilherme Cruz (@guicruzzz) December 31, 2022
Koike should have been fighting with this kind of urgency from the get go
— wholesomeMMA (@wholesome_mma) December 31, 2022
Pitbull wins unanimously and Bellator continues to roll, improving to 4-0 versus Rizin tonight.
— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) December 31, 2022
4-0 for team @BellatorMMA next to the ring @ajmckee101 do not miss these fights on @SHOsports today!
— CrisCyborg.Com (@criscyborg) December 31, 2022
3×5 rounds is actually making these fights more likely for decisions.
10×5 would have been a far better format.#RIZIN_40 #RIZIN
— (@JoshLBarnett) December 31, 2022
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