{"id":374887,"date":"2021-02-01T08:20:32","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T16:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=374887"},"modified":"2021-02-01T08:20:32","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T16:20:32","slug":"patricio-freire-predicts-michael-chandler-will-become-ufc-champ-but-not-no-1-lightweight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/patricio-freire-predicts-michael-chandler-will-become-ufc-champ-but-not-no-1-lightweight\/","title":{"rendered":"Patricio Freire predicts Michael Chandler will become UFC champ, but not No. 1 lightweight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patricio Freire believes Michael Chandler will become the UFC lightweight champion, but that still won’t make him the sport’s best lightweight.<\/p>\n

Freire and Chandler are easily the two most accomplished fighters in Bellator MMA history. The pair have fought once before<\/a>, with Freire knocking Chandler out to capture the promotion’s featherweight belt\u2014though many feel it was a premature stoppage.<\/p>\n

Several years after that fight, Chandler is now a member of the UFC roster, having made a splash in his promotional debut with a first-round knockout of Dan Hooker.<\/p>\n

Freire was impressed by Chandler’s victory over Hooker, and expects his former foe to continue with his winning ways in the Octagon. That said, he refutes that Chandler will ever be the sport’s top lightweight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf\u00a0Dustin Poirier is [Chandler’s] next opponent, I think he wins just as easily and the exact same way,\u201d Freire told MMA Fighting<\/a>. \u201cIt will be as vicious as his debut.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t root for him, but I\u2019m realistic and I know the damage he can do in this weight class,\u201d Freire added. \u201cHe has powerful hands and great wrestling. He\u2019s very aggressive. It\u2019s hard to take him down, and he has good takedowns. He can fight anyone on the feet and has knocked out great strikers already. It will be hard to stop him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he can do all that and I stopped him, how good am I? Let\u2019s put that to test,” Freire continued. “After he becomes UFC champion, let\u2019s put promotion against promotion to see who\u2019s the best in the world. He was kicked out of Bellator by me. He didn\u2019t stay there because I kicked him out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freire continued, claiming that if UFC President Dana White doesn’t allow him to fight Michael Chandler in a cross-promotional superfight, he’s effectively accepting that UFC champions are inferior.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf [White] doesn\u2019t do it, his champion is inferior to the Bellator champion, and that\u2019s on him and his promotion,\u201d Freire said. \u201cI\u2019ll forever bother them. I\u2019ll give them a chance to prove otherwise. He can make this cross promotion and be able to say my guy is the best in the world, otherwise, if he refuses to do it and stays quiet, he\u2019ll know I have this merit forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do you think of these comments from Patricio Freire?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patricio Freire believes Michael Chandler will become the UFC lightweight champion, but that still won’t make him the sport’s best lightweight. Freire and Chandler are easily the two most accomplished fighters in Bellator MMA history. The pair have fought once before, with Freire knocking Chandler out to capture the promotion’s featherweight belt\u2014though many feel it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":301752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[44,10485,10479],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nPatricio Freire predicts Michael Chandler will become UFC champ, but not No. 1 lightweight | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Patricio Freire believes Michael Chandler will become the UFC lightweight champion, but that still won't make him the sport's best lightweight.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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