Henry Cejudo might be Triple C, but teammate Patricio Pitbull is gunning to be MMA’s first triple champion in a major promotion.
Los Angeles, CA — Newly minted double-champ Patricio Pitbull has a featherweight title defense this September, part of the opening round of Bellator’s sixteen-man featherweight grand prix. The opening round fight will come against Juan Archuleta, a man on one of the best winning streaks in MMA at the moment.
Speaking to Cageside Press at the Bellator 226/228 media day this week in L.A., Pitbull revealed he has goals beyond just defending his 145lb title, however. Just call him a dreamer. And the next dream is more gold.
“The next one is to get the 135 title, and be a three [division] champion,” Pitbull told us. With his eye already fixated on a possible cut down to bantamweight, then, how much does the featherweight grand prix matter to Patricio Pitbull? Well, there’s a million reasons to care. “Because the featherweight tournament, you make a million dollars to win. So that’s why.”
Asked who he’d like to face in the grand prix, the Brazilian said via translator that “it doesn’t really matter, but [I’m] excited to face Juan Archuleta. He’s coming off an 18 fight win streak. And [I’d] like to face A.J. McKee, because he’s got a pretty long win streak in the featherweight division here too. But at this point [I] just want to face whoever comes.”
Archuleta, of course, will be up first. The pair will headline Bellator 228 in L.A. this September, with Pitbull’s featherweight title on the line.
As for the lightweight title, that he won with a knockout of Michael Chandler earlier in the year, Pitbull (properly Patricio Freire) is “just waiting for Bellator to make a decision on what’s next.”
“I will defend that title,” he proclaimed, no translator required. As for his message to the other fifteen men in the Bellator featherweight grand prix, “I’m going to beat [you] one by one. And I’m going to win the tournament. That’s it.”
