Pedro Carvalho and Patricio Pitbull fielded questions following Bellator 228, and champ Pitbull seems to love his next challenger’s confidence.
Los Angeles, CA — Patricio Pitbull shut down one of the biggest threats in the featherweight grand prix on Saturday at Bellator 228. There, the double champ brought the 18-fight win streak of Juan Archuleta to a screeching halt.
Now, it’s on to round two — though the champ will have some time to recover. Given a wild card in the selection process (fighters were afforded the opportunity to choose their fate, via a lottery format), Pitbull chose to fight in March, against Pedro Carvalho.
As he put it at the post-fight press conference, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press, “after a war like that, I need some rest, but I’m feeling good.”
Carvalho, meanwhile, was beaming, having the golden ticket in hand, so to speak. “I feel like a kid at Christmas, you know? I know a date when I’m going to become world champion, so I’m pretty happy.”
Asked about fighting Pitbull, Carvalho explained that “I see no names. I see no faces. When I’m inside of the cage, I’m just the hunter. And the other side of the cage is the prey. Mark my words, in March, I will shock the world.”
His approach to the selection process was to play the odds. “I was the last one to pick. And I saw some interview, that he wanted some time. So I kind of strategically put myself in March, and I was like ‘who knows if he picks me.’ I don’t know why he picked me. Maybe he underestimates me. That was pretty much the story of my life, since the very beginning of my career. Everyone looked down on me.”
Now, he exclaimed, at “34 years of age, I will become world champion, mark my words.”
Pitbull, meanwhile, reflected on the fight with Archuleta, saying that there was no surprise his Bellator 228 opponent could take his shots. “I know he’s tough. I knew that it was going to be a war.”
Asked why he didn’t choose former bantamweight champ Darrion Caldwell, who called him out, for the second round, the 145 and 155lb champ answered by saying that “Caldwell, he’s come off two losses. I don’t like to fight a guy like that.”
Caldwell had tried to get under Pitbull’s skin leading up to the event. Carvalho seems to be taking a more respectful approach. “No one tops him in the featherweight division in this company. So I’m facing the very featherweight, and one of the best in the world,” he said of Pitbull.
“I always said that my main goal is to prove that I’m the best in the world,” he continued. “So right now I have the best opportunity in my life to prove to the whole world what I’ve been saying: It’s true, that I’m the best.”
Patricio Pitbull, asked about Carvalho’s apparent confidence, took it all in stride. “It looks like it’s real. He’s confident. I like that. We are warriors.”
Watch the full Bellator 228 post-fight press conference with Patricio Pitbull and Pedro Carvalho above!
