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Bellator's 'Champ Champ' Patricio Freire says he is ready a dream fight against the UFC's own former 'Champ Champ' Conor McGregor.
Freire - Bellator's reigning featherweight and lightweight world champion - knocked out Pedro Carvalho in the first round at Bellator 252 last Friday to successfully defend the promotion's 145-pound title and advance to the quarterfinals of the Bellator Featherweight World Grand Prix.
It was Freire's fourth straight successful defense of the Bellator featherweight championship.
After the bout, SBG Ireland head coach John Kavanagh, took to Twitter to express his appreciation for his ward Carvalho's performance.
"Took a shot and came up short. That's the game sometimes. Very proud of @PCarvalhoMMA and look forward to his run in 2021. Congratulations to Pitbull brothers team, class act in victory," Kavanagh said.
Feire responded to Kavanagh by giving Carvalho his props as well as angling for a cross-promotional super fight against another big-name fighter who trains out of SBG in Ireland, Conor McGregor.
"It's the nature of the game. The rivalry will continue through our fighters and everyone will grow from it. Best of luck against anyone who isn't us. Pedro is strong. Now about that dream match you mentioned @John_Kavanagh, I'm ready when you are @TheNotoriousMMA," Freire said.
An interesting proposition from one of Bellator's best to one of the UFC's biggest stars.
How would a Patricio Freire vs. Conor McGregor matchup play out?
Head to Head: Patricio Freire vs. Conor McGregor
While this fight may not happen, at least not in the near future, a Patricio Freire vs. Conor McGregor matchup would feature two men who have somewhat parallel careers in their respective organizations.
A staple in Bellator since 2010, Freire rose the promotion's 145-pound ranks and came up short in his first attempt at a championship against veteran Pat Curran in 2013. Freire would work his way back up and eventually dethrone Curran in the rematch to become Bellator's new featherweight king the following year.
In 2015, Freire would drop the title in a rematch against Daniel Straus, and then win it back two years later for a second run as Bellator's 145-pound champion.
After defending the title twice, Freire stepped up to the lightweight division and demolished Michael Chandler in the first round to capture the Bellator lightweight championship and become a simultaneous two-division world champion.
Like Freire, McGregor also made a name for himself in the featherweight division. In 2013, McGregor burst onto the scene with a first-round TKO win over Marcus Brimage in his UFC debut. The brash Irishman went on to put away contender after contender until finally earning himself a shot at the interim UFC featherweight championship, opposite top contender Chad Mendes in 2015.
McGregor stopped Mendes in the second round to capture UFC gold and set up a long-awaited clash against long-time featherweight champion Jose Aldo.
In just 13 seconds, McGregor shocked the MMA world by knocking out Aldo and becoming the UFC's new featherweight champion.
Unlike Freire however, McGregor opted to chase the big fights outside his division and faced Nate Diaz in a pair of welterweight bouts, losing the first and then winning the rematch.
In 2016, McGregor - already the UFC's biggest star at the time - used the momentum from the Aldo and Diaz bouts to leverage a bout with then-reigning UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and become the first simultaneous two-division champion in UFC history.
McGregor dismantled Alvarez in just two rounds to become the 'Champ Champ'.
Unlike Freire however, McGregor never got to defend his titles, as he pursued endeavors outside the UFC, namely a boxing match against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Now, McGregor has committed himself back to the UFC's 155-pound division and looks to regain the championship. He is expected to face Dustin Poirier at UFC 257 in January in a rematch with lightweight title implications.
