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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Patricky "Pitbull" Freire was excited about the prospect of Melvin Guillard signing with Bellator last week, and he took a quick opportunity to call the UFC and WSOF vet out.
Bellator officials didn't share his enthusiasm about the matchup, and he said this weekend they told him that fight wouldn't happen. Unfortunately, turning down another fight means that he's got nothing on deck at all.
"I tweeted that I wanted to welcome him to Bellator, but my manager Jorge Guimaraes got a text from someone at Bellator saying that they wouldn't book this fight now," Freire said in an interview with Guilherme Cruz at MMAFighting.com. "They said that they want to build him back up, since he's coming off a loss. They didn't say exactly that, but that's what they meant. They want to bring him back up, and that this fight could happen in the future. They won't give me this fight now.
"They offered me a fight with David Rickels in his city, like the first time, but I didn't accept. I asked for a rematch with Derek Anderson. I lost that fight via decision in a fight I believe I won, but Derek Anderson declined to give me the rematch. And then they put John Alessio against Rickels, and I don't have anyone else to fight."
Penick's Analysis: Now, just because they didn't book Guillard against Freire doesn't mean they're giving Guillard an easy fight. Of course, that opinion may change when Guillard's first opponent gets booked, but not giving it to Freire doesn't mean he'll have a walk in his first outing. As for the other options, he didn't feel like fighting Rickels in his hometown, and that's alright, but it means he'll have to find a different option as soon as he can.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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