Bellator
Champ Patricio "Pitbull" Freire into Bellator 138: "I think Kimbo and Shamrock should be my co-main event"
Jun 18, 2015 - 11:35:10 AM Champ Patricio "Pitbull" Freire into Bellator 138: "I think Kimbo and Shamrock should be my co-main event"

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Patricio "Pitbull" Freire is defending his Bellator Featherweight Championship on Friday night at Bellator 138 against Daniel Weichel. However, despite being one of the most elite fighters on the Bellator roster, his fight is serving as support under the Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock main event, and that's something he's not very happy about.

In an interview with MMAJunkie.com this week ahead of the event on Spike, Freire says that type of fight should be supporting him and the title he's putting on the line.

"As far as being the champion, I feel pretty comfortable," Freire said. "Obviously, some things could be better, and some things should be different. I think Kimbo and Shamrock should be my co-main event, and not the other way around."

While Freire understands the eyeballs Bellator expects to get on the product with Slice and Shamrock, he thinks that they still could have put them in a supporting role, rather than as the top fight on the card.

"There is a positive side and a negative," he said. "The positive is that it can possibly attract the attention of new fans. The negative is that they should use Kimbo and Shamrock to raise our profile, instead of having us support them. Randy Couture and James Toney were the co-main event of Edgar vs. Penn 2. The general public did not know who Edgar was, and Toney and Couture were much better known than B.J.. But the champion's position was respected and that's how the UFC promoted it.

"I fight three to four times a year. Those guys fight now and maybe never again. What's better? Two million people watching them now, or two million people watching me several times a year?"

Penick's Analysis: Freire's right, of course. Obviously they're trying to bring in lapsed viewers, and pushing a freakshow type fight to do so; unfortunately, even as it brings eyes to the undercard, it comes at the expense of a failure to promote one of their best fighters. It was a similar issue with giving Tito Ortiz and Stephan Bonnar top billing, or initially Ortiz and Rampage Jackson over Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler last year. By booking some of these fights under a fight like Kimbo and Shamrock, it essentially paints them as being less important, and not as big, which is just not really true. Pitbull-Daniel Weichel is an infinitely more relevant and meaningful fight than Slice-Shamrock could ever be, and in that respect it's unfortunate Pitbull's going to be seen as lesser than Slice or Shamrock by some of the fans tuning in.