Patricio Pitbull is back in action on April 12.
The former two-division Bellator MMA champion makes his long-awaited Octagon debut when the promotion heads back to Miami, Florida, for a loaded fight card headlined by a featherweight title clash between Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes.
Pitbull will square off with former interim titleholder Yair Rodriguez in a fight that was originally scheduled to be part of the evening’s main card. However, a recent shuffle has seen their highly anticipated clash moved to the prelims. And not even the featured prelim.
Instead, Pitbull vs. Rodriguez will be the fourth fight of the night, wedged between Dan Ige vs. Sean Woodson and a middleweight bout featuring Sedriques Dumas and Michał Oleksiejczuk.
But whether he fights early or late, none of it makes a difference to the 43-fight veteran.
“Yeah, it feels weird that they made those changes,” Pitbull told James Lynch in a MiddleEasy exclusive interview. “He was a former interim champion; we were the third-to-last fight on the card. Then they made those changes, but it doesn’t mean anything to me. I’m just going to go in there and do my job.”
Offering some insight into his opponent, Pitbull believes that Yair Rodriguez is a world-class striker who tends to buckle under pressure, particularly when competing against fighters smaller than himself.
“He’s a very dynamic fighter,” Pitbull said. “He kicks a lot and has excellent striking, but when he fights guys smaller than him, compact like me, that puts some pressure on him, and he doesn’t perform well. Some of those guys are able to take him down and pressure him with ground-and-pound. So I see many ways I could beat him. He’s a very strong fighter, but I see some avenues I could take to win this fight, and I believe I’m going to beat him.”
As for how he sees the fight playing out, Pitbull plans to take a page out of both Brian Ortega and Volkanovski’s book—two fighters who beat Rodriguez on the mat.
“I’m gonna do the same thing that Ortega and Volkanovski did against him,” Pitbull said with confidence. “I’m gonna bring pressure, take him down, and smash him.”
Patricio Pitbull Willing to Run it Back with Michael Chandler Inside the Octagon
Also featuring on the UFC 314 card will be a massive lightweight showdown between surging contender Paddy Pimblett and a man Pitbull is very familiar with—Michael Chandler.
“It looks like Paddy Pimblett is in the better moment of his career, and he’s gonna win that fight,” Pitbull said when asked for his prediction. “I know he’s very confident, and I think he’s gonna win.”
Michael Chandler and Patricio Pitbull previously met in 2019 at Bellator 221. On that night, Pitbull scored a TKO just 61 seconds into the bout to claim the promotion’s lightweight championship. Asked about potentially running it back with Chandler under the UFC banner, Pitbull kept his answer short and sweet.
“I can do that many times,” he said with a smile.
With a win over Rodriguez at UFC 314, Pitbull will likely find himself thrust into the featherweight top five and on the cusp of a shot at the division’s top prize. But for now, the Brazilian is focusing on the task at hand.
“[The belt] is not my focus right now,” Pitbull said. “My focus is entirely on this fight. I like to take things one step at a time, so right now the most important thing to me is winning this fight, and then looking towards the belt. But right now, I’ll focus on beating Yair, and we’ll see what happens after that.”
Watch the full exclusive interview below:
