Patricio Pitbull successfully defended his Bellator featherweight title this Friday at Bellator Belfast, knocking out Jeremy Kennedy in the third round of their co-main event title fight.
It was Patricio Pitbull‘s first fight at 145lbs since his win over Kleber Koike Erbst at Bellator vs RIZIN back in 2022.
Jeremy Kennedy on the other hand was coming in on a three-fight win streak, with his most recent win coming against Pedro Carvalho at Bellator 291 back in February.
The first few rounds were closely contested with the Canadian, Kennedy, having a few moments of promise in the first 10 minutes of the fight. ‘JBC’ even managed to score a knockdown over the Brazilian, but that led to the 31-year-old becoming too confident.
From there, Pitbull’s experience shone through and he finished the fight not long after, following a sequence of punches, knees and elbows.
Patricio Pitbull calls out Ilia Topuria, Jesus Pinedo and Aaron Pico
Following his title defense, the 36-year-old made three big callouts, explaining that he wants to find out who the ‘best’ 145lb fighter is, on the planet. One of the callouts he made, was to UFC featherweight champion, Ilia Topuria.
“I already beat the RIZIN champion, I want to beat the PFL champion (Jesus Pinedo) and the next one is going to be the 145lb champion for the UFC (Ilia Topuria), let’s go let’s do that. That’s to see who the best 145lber is on the planet” Pitbull said in his post-fight interview.
He wasn’t finished there though, he had a third name he wanted to call out before he went off to celebrate his second title defense of his third featherweight reign.
“I’m not done yet, Aaron Pico you’re next.”
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Which of Pitbull’s call outs is most likely to come to fruition
The Brazilian was previously scheduled to fight the 2023 PFL featherweight champion, Jesus Pinedo, at the Bellator vs PFL champions vs champions event just one month ago, but Pinedo withdrew from the bout.
With the Peruvian champion not being a part of the PFL’s 2024 featherweight season format, there is a good chance this fight could be rebooked.
The 36-year-old’s call out of the UFC champion, Ilia Topuria, is extremely unlikely to happen for as long as both fighters are contracted to separate promotions. Although Bellator is extremely open to cross-promotion events and has done so before, it is not something the UFC is open to.
The final name, Aaron Pico, was one that came as a surprise to the fans in attendance. Although the 27-year-old is on a three-fight win streak, he is likely just one fight away from earning the title shot. The Jackson Wink product’s last fight came at 155lbs when he took on and beat Henry Corales on late notice after his original opponent, Gabriel Braga pulled out of their scheduled bout.