Andreas Haleapr 9, 2025, 07:53 AM ET
CloseanDreas Hale is ESPN’s Combat Sports Reporter. Andreas covers MMA, boxing and professional wrestling. In Andreas’ free time, he plays video games, gets obsessed with music, and is a fan of the White Sox and 49ers. He is also the host of Sirius XM’s Phytonation. Before joining ESPN, Andreas was a senior writer for Dazn and Sporting News. He began his career as a music journalist for outlets such as Hiphopdx, The Grammys and Jay-Z’s Life+Times. He is also a filmmaker who was nominated for the NAACP Image Award in 2024 as the producer of the animated short film Bridge.
Over the years, the UFC has many imports from the now-deprecated Bellator MMA. Some are very decorated, but perhaps no fighters were the standard bearers of success in that organization, like four-time world champion Patricio Pitbull. Holding a series of promotional records and widely recognized as the greatest fighter in Bellator MMA history, the Brazilian begins his journey to join Eddie Alvarez as the only fighter to hold gold in both Bellator and UFC, when he makes his promotional debut against Aerodriguez at UFC 314.
The 37-year-old Pitbull holds Bellator Records in most fights (30), victory (24), title fight victory (15), and finish (15). He is also one of two fighters who will simultaneously hold the world title in two divisions (Ryan Bader is the other). But those admirations are exceptional, but it is Pitbull’s fighting style that is likely to attract the attention of anyone who has never actually acted on it.
“Violence. A lot of violence,” Pitbull told ESPN to the translator what to expect when he was trapped in an octagon alongside Rodriguez of Miami. “Three rounds of violence – if you don’t take off his head before that.”
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A one-time lightweight champion, the three-time featherweight champion blends skilled strikes and catastrophic knockout power with offensive wrestling with a black strip of Brazilian jiu-jitsu to become an absolute nightmare to fight and deal with. His finishes come in a variety of ways, whether it was his one-punch knockout power that cut off the lights of Daniel Weicher and current UFC fan favorite Michael Chandler, or his nasty guillotine chokes with Daniel Strauss desperately pounding the mat and putting Emmanuel Sanchez to sleep. Pitbull is scheduled to showcase his prolific finishing skills to new audiences on April 12th.
And whether he likes it or not, he will carry the history of Bellator MMA on his back when he makes his Octagon debut.
“People are always going to see me as representative of that organization,” Pitbull said. “There’s a vast history, as most of my career victories have been Bellator, and there’s a lot of luggage in that history. For me, this is a new chapter in my career, and everything is new.
What he did before would make the Brazilian one of the most decorated fighters who have never competed against the UFC. Despite all his achievements, the history of those who came before him was able to show a great challenge in his highly anticipated tenure at the UFC.
Pitbull will not become the first former Bellator MMA champion to adorn the Octagon. The prolific finisher, fighting from Brazil’s Rio Grande do Norte, will follow in the footsteps of Ben Askren (1-2), Lyman Good (3-3), Alexander Volkov (12-5), Hector Lombard (3-8), Will Sotto (1-3) and John Macco, and will become the 9th Bellator champion in the UFC. (3-4) and Alvarez (4-3). The UFC Bellator Champions’ total record is between 30 and 33, with an overwhelming 47.6% win rate.
Patricio Pitbull is one of two Bellator MMA fighters who won two world titles at the same time. Jerry Lai-Usa Today Sports
Bellator Champions, who competed in the UFC before Pitbull, were neutralised upon their arrival at the UFC. Lombard was 8-0, finishing six at the Bellator MMA, and was never stopped in his MMA carrier before stepping into the Octagon. In the UFC, he was knocked out three times and only had two stop wins in 11 fights before winning the past seven fights.
Askren made her UFC debut with a controversial obedience victory over Robbie Lawler, and was 18-0 when she was expected to challenge UFC Gold. Instead, his short time in the promotion ended with two consecutive wins. One of these losses came courtesy of Jorge Masvidal’s Flying Knee. Pitbull, 37, enters the Octagon as another veteran, 21, under his belt in the fight for 43 MMA.
“There were a few people in the UFC who questioned my age, but looking at the weight class, there are no many young fighters in the top 15,” Pitbull said.
The 28-year-old Youssef Zalal is the only UFC featherweight under the age of 30, but the fact remains that after stepping into the octagon, Pitbull will be the second oldest one after 40-year-old Josh Emmett. He has a considerable amount of mileage in his body, but is sure he is in enough tanks to join Alvarez as the second Bellator fighter who holds UFC gold.
“I’ll make every sacrifice go to the best. No one has the focus I do.”
Pitbull maintains a strict diet and training regime to ensure that it continues to perform at a high level. He said he is perfectly prepared for the best the promotion has to offer.
“I’ve always had the confidence to be the best featherweight in the world,” Pitbull said. “Now I can prove that.”
Alvarez’s UFC tenure didn’t start with the way he planned to Donald Serone in 2014 with a decision loss. He will drop the title in his next fight against Conor McGregor, but “The Underground King” said he remembers feeling pressured as he was preparing for his Octagon debut.
“The promotion to fans standing outside the hotel made me feel like it’s the biggest show on the planet. What’s anyone getting closer to? [the UFC] Alvarez told ESPN. But I still did my best not to do much from the three letters, reminding me that it was just another fight. ”
This is what UFC CEO Dana White created “The Octagon Jitters.” The term refers to when a promotional newcomer succumbs to the high-pressure environment of the UFC. While there is some weight to the concept, there is also the reality that the UFC historically had a sink or swim mentality when matchmaking other promotional highly decorated fighters for their debut. Askren fought Lawler and Alvarez faced Cerrone in their respective debuts.
“When they know the UFC, they want to make the fighter jets number one,” Alvarez said. He also admitted that when he signed the promotion in 2014 he only asked to compete with the top fighters in the UFC’s lightweight division. Without it, he believes there would have been an asterisk in his name.
“[The UFC] We want the recognition that the UFC has the best fighter jets in the world,” said Alvarez. They sign us. Because they want the world’s biggest and worst fighter jets, but whether they’re signing them to do well in their promotion is a completely different story. ”
Eddie Alvarez is one of the most successful fighters to travel from the Bellator MMA to the UFC. Joshu Adar/USA TODAY SPORTS
The UFC declined to comment on the matchmaking decision.
Like Alvarez, Pitbull didn’t want to waste time, so he was asked to be placed on the deep edge for his UFC debut. Rodriguez is currently the fifth-place featherweight in the promotion, two fights removed from the 145-pound championship challenge.
Certainly, it’s not certain that Pitbull will compete on the cards found by former champion Alexan Volkanovsky, who squared Diego Lopez for the featherweight championship. Given that there are more questions than Ilia Topuria’s post-departure answers to lightweight, the UFC 314 victory will allow Pitbull to be pushed into the photo of the featherweight title by the end of the year.
“The UFC isn’t saying they’ll be taking the title fight next, but it makes sense,” Pitbull said. “I’m fighting on the same day as having a new champion in the featherweight division. Winning puts me in a great place and that’s what I’m looking for.”
Interestingly, the showdown with Volkanovski was once considered a fantasy battle, but now it could become a reality.
“I think [Pitbull] It can do quite well [against] UFC featherweight champion,” trainer Duke Rufus told ESPN in 2023. Rufus trained the then bantamweight Sergio Pettis. [Volkanovski] Fight each other. “Pit Bull” is legal. He is the top of the MMA food chain. ”
There will be a lot of support for fighter Pitbull, who competed for Bellator, including former two-division champion Ryan Bader.
“It’s cool to see Pitbull go to the UFC. I hope he does well,” Bader told ESPN. “Because the UFC is a top promotion, some people think that it will beat all other promotional fighters. That’s not necessarily true. An opportunity like this makes MMA fun.”
He is not only to fight for himself, but also to test the idea that the best fighters can come from other promotions. If Alvarez justifies Bellator being able to produce UFC champions, Pitbull aims to stamp his bill by adding it to his Hall of Fame career already.
“Great fighters come from anywhere,” Pitbull said. “People who say that all of the best fighters are in the UFC and everyone else is garbage know nothing about the sport. They know that there are fighters that feel expressed when a Bellator goat stepped into the octagon.
“I fight for history, heritage and honor. I want to take that belt and prove to myself and everyone else that I am the best featherweight ever.”
