Patrício Freire: 'Nobody should be surprised if Bethe Correia wins the belt'

Bellator's featherweight champion, Patricio Freire doesn't know what Joe Warren was complaining about.

"Pitbull" watched closely as his fellow countryman, Marcos Galvao, locked up a kneebar at the beginning of the second round to conquer the bantamweight title at Bellator 135. Even though Warren himself thought Big John McCarthy's stoppage was uncalled for since he never tapped, only yelled.

Freire, however, begs to differ.

"That was a clean win. The rules are simple, if you scream, that's a verbal tap." He told Portal Do Vale Tudo. "Warren was actually winning the fight so far, but Loro began the second round better and wasn't afraid of using his jiu-jitsu and that's exactly what he had to do. When we fight wrestlers, we must defend the takedowns, but also try and surprise them, get them down and impose our ground game, not just trying to get back up, I think that's a mistake. I hope I can still fight him one day, hopefully for the belt, but we never know what tomorrow may bring".

With his own title fight scheduled for Bellator 138, on June 19, a rematch against Georgi Karakhanyan, whom he defeated by TKO in 2011, Freire remains as confident as always, relying on hard work.

"I always prepare really well. In a few days Eric Albarracin will come over and I have about 20 guys to spar with here in Natal. My physical trainer is still the same from when I was a kid, Mario Novaes. Training is always intense over here. I have recently added tae kwon do to my training schedule and we are also coming up with some other strategies suited for myself"

Still speaking of title fights, there's one more Patricio also has his mind on.

Patricio, alongside his team, will be the ones getting Bethe Correia prepared for her bout against Ronda Rousey at UFC 190, in Rio. Freire said they had only recently established their gameplan for Correia, but he already believes she will be a much tougher task than any of Ronda's previous opponents.

"The first thing we established was that she can't make the same mistakes the previous challengers made, which is going straight at Ronda or letting her close the distance. We are working very hard on that. Her camp hasn't begun yet, but she's already training with that mindset. Bethe trains boxing, jiu-jitsu, kickboxing and takedown defense almost everyday. She trains armbar defense everyday. You will see Bethe put on a really tough fight and nobody should be surprised if she wins the belt. She has the drive and a lot of heart, no one should doubt her".