When Patricio Pitbull attributed Dana White's reluctance towards cross-promotion to being "afraid" of his champions possibly losing

Reigning Bellator featherweight champion Patricio ‘Pitbull’ Freire has previously accused Dana White of avoiding cross-promotion events, claiming that the UFC president is afraid his champions might lose to fighters from other organizations.

Cross-promotion fights have been a heated topic ever since different promotions began claiming to have the best fighters, with fans demanding such matchups. Recently, Francis Ngannou, the current PFL heavyweight champion, expressed his desire to face Jon Jones, the reigning UFC heavyweight champion. However, this seems unlikely, as White has repeatedly dismissed the idea.

Back in 2022, ‘Pitbull’ shared his thoughts on cross-promotion fights during an interview with MMA Fighting:

“I think that’s the next step in MMA, other promotions have already taken. Bellator has taken that step, RIZIN too. Maybe Bellator against PFL [next]. I wish the UFC would join as well, because we know there’s [that debate], who’s the best one, the UFC or the Bellator [champion]? It doesn’t matter who I think wins, what really matters is who actually wins. So, to be sure, we have to put the champions [in a position] to fight each other. To me, that’s the next step we have to take in MMA.”

“When Pride was the MMA giant, [Dana White] risked his fighters to fight there and do a cross-promotion. Now that he has this monopoly of the bigger promotion, he’s afraid that his champion will go there for a superfight like this and end up losing and taking away that credibility and name they have,” he added.

In the early days of the UFC, White allowed Chuck Liddell to represent the promotion and compete against fighters from Pride FC to gain recognition for the organization. Additionally, the UFC permitted Conor McGregor to participate in a boxing match against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2017, which became one of the most lucrative events in UFC history.

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Patricio Pitbull says he will soon be making his way to Dana White’s UFC

MMA Junkie reported that Nolan King revealed on his X account that reigning Bellator featherweight champion Patricio ‘Pitbull’ Freire’s contract with PFL is about to end, and he will soon join Dana White's promotion. This caught the attention of UFC fighter Gilbert Burns, who reshared it, writing:

“That would be amazing to have @PatricioPitbull in the @ufc. About time!”

‘Pitbull' responded to the tweet, writing:

“I’ll be there pretty soon, my friend. Thank you @GilbertDurinho.”

Check out Patricio 'Pitbull' Freire's X post below: