Patricio Freire wants to test his skills against the UFC’s 145-pound king.
Bellator lightweight and featherweight champion Freire took to Twitter to call out UFC featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski, who retained his title against Max Holloway this past Saturday at UFC 251.
“Let’s make MMA better. @BellatorMMA vs @ufc. Me vs @alexvolkanovski. I heard you’re a betting man @danawhite, let’s bet. Let’s go @ScottCoker.”
Freire (30-4 MMA, 18-4 BMMA) has won his five in a row and in 2019 stopped Michael Chandler in the first round to capture the promotion’s 155-pound title.
After defeating Juan Archuleta this past September in the opening round of the Bellator featherweight grand prix, Freire was scheduled to face Pedro Carvalho at Bellator 241 on March 13, but the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With Bellator expected to resume operations soon, Freire’s fight with Carvalho will likely get rescheduled. But that hasn’t stopped him from issuing a challenge to Volkanovski (22-1 MMA, 9-0 UFC).
Volkanovski has yet to lose in the UFC, already building an impressive resume at 145 pounds with wins over Chad Mendes, former UFC featherweight champ Jose Aldo and Holloway twice.
UFC president Dana White has never been open to cross-promoting, which makes Freire’s callout a long shot. Bellator president Scott Coker, on the other hand, has cross promoted on numerous occasions, most notably with Japanese organization Rizin.
