Uncasville, CT — After nearly five months, Patricio Pitbull finally got back in the cage on Friday night, and it didn’t last long. While his 2018 meeting with Emmanuel Sanchez went the distance, the pair’s Bellator 255 rematch went a very different direction.
After some feeling out in the main event featherweight grand prix semifinal, Brazil’s Pitbull rocked Sanchez, dropping him, then caught him in a guillotine on the way back up. Before long, Sanchez was out cold. Everyone but the ref seemed to recognize it. “Yeah, he was limp and I knew that,” Pitbull (32-4) said of the finish, speaking to reporters including Cageside Press at the post-fight press conference. In the end, the double champ was the one who had to alert the referee.
The victory sets up a showdown with AJ McKee, the undefeated wunderkind of Bellator. “It’s the perfect fight,” said Pitbull. Like the finale of a movie. “He’s undefeated. I’m the champion. Let’s see what’s going to happen. And I know what’s going to happen.”
“He knows my power. He knows I’m dangerous,” Pitbull later exclaimed. “I know he’s scared.”
The pair faced off inside the Bellator cage following the event Friday, which was Bellator MMA’s first on Showtime, and also streamed free online across multiple platforms. Words were exchanged, but Pitbull was coy about whether there was any bad blood between the two. That, despite McKee’s constant ribbing about putting Pitbull on a leash.
“It’s a challenger. I know he’s good, he’s young,” said Pitbull. “But I told him, to be an accomplished fighter, he deserves to be defeated. And he will be defeated by me.”
McKee has long rooted for Pitbull to win his side of the tournament bracket, desiring exactly this showdown in the finale. The Brazilian was less invested in who he faced along the way. “Not really. But I knew it was possible. I didn’t think about it,” he told Cageside Press.
Watch the full Bellator 255 post-fight press conference with Patricio Pitull above.
