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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
"I was in New York for a Bellator photo shoot and they asked me to throw some flying knees, but I was landing on the concrete. I did it 30 times, and ended up injuring my meniscus. I couldn't train. I went to the doctor and he said I couldn't fight. Bellator took me to another doctor and he said the same thing, so I canceled the fight. I forgot about my diet, forgot about the fight.
...I was asked a few times about the injury, and I said it wasn't true. I actually canceled the fight a couple weeks before the event, I said I couldn't do it. I had the worst camp of my life. I was so injured I couldn't throw a kick, and then I injured my shoulder and I couldn't throw a punch, too. I usually train twice a day, and I was barely training once a day. I had fever every time I stopped training. It was terrible.
...Three days after I pulled out of the fight, Bellator called me again asking me if I was good to fight. I said I was still recovering, so they gave me a week to think. They called me again on Aug. 29, a week before the fight. My manager Jorge Guimaraes told me 'man, let's do this, you are ready. Every fighter has injuries. Get some rest, make weight, and let's do this.' I sparred, did five rounds, so I decided to take the fight."
-New Bellator Champ Patricio "Pitbull" Freire explained in an interview with MMAFighting.com that he had to initially pull out of his rematch with Pat Curran at Bellator 123 before ultimately going ahead with the fight.
Penick's Analysis: It sounds like some serious negligence on the part of Bellator's production team if they wound up contributing to one of their challengers getting injured like this. Indeed, given the damage already done, it seems insane that he actually went through with the fight, and that he still managed to be as effective as he was. Obviously, it's another case of fighters going into a fight less than 100%, but if his version of events is accurate, then this goes beyond the pale, and even though he wound up winning, it's perhaps not right that he was convinced to go through with it. Given the injury he already had, there's serious risk of compounded damage at that point, which does nothing good for the fighter or the organization.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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