Bellator 270: Peter Queally Expects “War of Attrition” in Pitbull Rematch

When Peter Queally fights for the Bellator MMA lightweight championship this Friday, it will be the culmination of over a decade’s worth of work for the Irish fighter.

Which makes the fight, coming at home in Ireland against Patricky Pitbull atop the Bellator 270 card, all the more special.

“It’s just a dream come true. It’s 12, 13 years of work that’s finally coming to fruition. I’m very proud of myself, that’s all I can say about it,” he told Cageside Press during Wednesday’s media day promoting the event. “I’m just very, very proud of myself, that I got here.”

Friday’s title fight is a rematch from Queally’s first meeting with Pitbull earlier this year. In that outing, Queally (13-5-1) picked up a TKO victory, which had a bit of controversy surrounding it. The end came about due to a cut which some felt wasn’t bad enough to warrant a doctor’s stoppage. Still, it’s been pointed out that by that point, Pitbull had been uncharacteristically shooting takedowns, a seemingly desperate move for the Brazilian.

“Yeah, exactly what you just said. When do you see him shooting for takedowns? Never,” Queally agreed. The Irish lightweight feels Pitbull took that route “because the fight wasn’t going his way, he wasn’t enjoying the standup, and this was his alternative, to try to take me down and try to change the course of the fight. So that said a lot about it.”

With the actual stoppage, however, Queally understands why his opponent was frustrated. “I wouldn’t want to be stopped from a cut no matter how bad it was, to be honest. I think it probably should have been let go, but this would not have changed the course of the fight,” he stated. “I was two rounds up, and he had a hole in his head now. So I was going to win the third round, or stop him, or whatever was going to happen in the third round, it wasn’t going to go well for him. So the right man got his hand raised on the night.”

In terms of what he took away from that first meeting, Queally told us that “I took away a lot of the assumptions I already had, that if I pressured him, he would fatigue.” As well as that if he stayed tight and had faith in his guard, Pitbull’s power wouldn’t be an issue. And finally that “overall, my fitness would carry me through that fight, and that’s even more concrete now that this is five rounds. That’s what this is going to be, it’s going to be a war of attrition, and we’ll see how much he can take on the night.”

Watch the full Bellator 270 media day appearance from Peter Queally above. More coverage of the event can be found below. Bellator 270 takes place Friday, November 5 at the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland.