Former two-division Bellator champion Patricio Pitbull was recently released from his contract with PFL and the fighter is set to battle under the UFC banner.
The Brazillian had a controversial battle with PFL after the promotion left him inactive for over a year without any fights. The fighter was constantly speaking against the justice and asking for his release and luckily for him, he finally got what he wanted and was let go by PFL after they dissolved Bellator.
Due to his accolades and past wins, it was no surprise the UFC CEO Dana White was ready to sign on the former champ. Pitbull is set to make his first UFC debut at UFC 313, where he will battle Yair Rodriguez. Although things seem to be looking up for the fighter, he reveals that he was ready to go down the path of retirement if the promotion never picked him up.
In an interview with Ariel Helwani, Pitbull says that if UFC never came with an offer, he would have been forced to retire. Pitbull revealed he wasn’t interested in joining any other promotion and that his only focus was on UFC.
“I told my management team to not even waste time talking with other promotions.” Patricio Pitbull stated earlier today to Ariel Helwani. “It was either the UFC or retirement. I was already decided on that. Yes [I would’ve retired], I would train with my son and that’s that.”
He continued, “Everything really only happened last week. When they made the fight offer that’s what they were looking for, they wanted to have a fun fight for me, not just send me the contract… They had first offered me a fight against Aljamain Sterling on March 8th, and I said yes, he said no… [But] last week, it finally happened.”
Although the fight was happy to sign with the UFC, Pitbull did not make the negotiation easy. The fight was ready to step into the octagon and also accepted a short-notice fight with Steve Gracia for UFC Settle but had to withdraw due to visa issues. Before he agreed to face Yair Rodriguez, many opponents were pitched to him but he ended up landing on Rodriguez.
“What motivated me much more is just the fact that I’m signed with the UFC…Now hearing that a lot of guys were turning me down. All the anxiety of waiting if [a] contract is coming or not but they’re still offering me fights, I didn’t know what was going on. It gives me extra motivation that UFC wanted to sign me with a big fight lined up and now I’m on a big card.”
