Patricio Freire is 1-1 in the UFC after a lengthy Bellator
tenrue. | PFL MMA/Bellator
Life isn’t going to get any easier for former Patricio
Freire.
The ex-Bellator
MMAchampion will square off against former two-division Oktagon
MMA king Losene
Keita at
UFC Paris on Sept. 6. Maitres Fumiers was first to report the 145-pound
booking. UFC Paris — also known as UFC Fight Night 258 — takes
place at the Accor Arena in Paris and is headlined by a
middleweight duel between Nassourdine
Imavov and Caio
Borralho.
Freire Bounced Back from Rough Octagon Debut
A title holder at 155 and 145 pounds in Bellator, Freire’s Octagon
tenure got off to a rocky start when he dropped a lackluster
unanimous decision to Yair
Rodriguez at UFC 314 this past April. The 38-year-old “Pitbull”
rebounded in his last outing, a he outpointed Dan Ige at UFC
318. The Brazilian’s 37-8 career mark includes triumphs over the
likes of A.J. McKee,
Michael
Chandler, Daniel
Straus, Pat Curran
and Kleber
Koike Erbst, among others.
It didn’t take long for Keita to find an opponent after his UFC
signing became public on Friday. The 27-year-old Belgium-based
fighter has tasted defeat just once in 17 pro outings, and he will
take a five-bout winning streak into the showdown with Freire. Most
recently, “Black
Panther” scored a second-round stoppage of Ronald
Paradeiser in a lightweight title bout at Oktagon 65 on Dec.
29.