Bellator champion Patricio Freire goes off on PFL season format: “To me, that’s bullsh*t”

Bellator featherweight champion Patricio Freire isn’t exactly gung-ho over PFL’s season format.

Freire was invited to the final PFL event of 2023, and he had a staredown with the 2023 featherweight winner Jesus Pineda. While “Pitbull” seemed to be content with the festivities, he isn’t totally sold on what PFL founder Donn Davis is presenting. He recently had some surprising comments on how he feels about the PFL show he attended, as well as the season format.

“Pitbull” is clearly still used to the way Bellator MMA handled things.

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Patricio Freire Scoffs At PFL Format

During an appearance on MMAFighting.com‘s “Trocação Franca podcast,” Patricio Freire slammed the season format PFL uses because he doesn’t feel the system truly determines who were the best fighters leading up to the championship finals.

“If you finish someone in the first round, second, third, that’s [six, five or four] points. If you win a decision, it’s [three] points,” Pitbull said. “But, let’s say I fight a former world champion and win a three-round war, and someone else knocks out a nobody in the first round, he’s advancing and I’m not. That confuses me. It’s a clear critique I make about the way PFL does the season. To me, that’s bullsh*t. It’s unfair. It doesn’t make any sense to me because you fight a tough opponent and the other guy fought an easy opponent and got the finish, and you don’t advance because of points. It’s sh*t.”

Freire also said that while PFL shows have a futuristic look, he said it feels more like fighting in a studio made for TV than the packed arenas he was used to performing in. “Pitbull” said it’s an adjustment, but he feels the PFL brass would benefit from taking some notes from Bellator on running big arenas.