Peter Queally thinks the rivalry between SBG Ireland and the Pitbull Brothers makes his next outing a bona fide No. 1 contender fight.
Queally (12-5-1 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) faces Patricky Freire (23-9 MMA, 14-7 BMMA) in the Bellator Dublin headliner on Oct. 3 at 3Arena, with the thinking that a victory over one brother will set him on a collision course with the other – featherweight and lightweight Bellator champion Patricio Freire.
While he understands that there’s another pivotal lightweight clash between Benson Henderson and Michael Chandler scheduled, Queally is confident that if he beats Freire, he will be in prime position for a title shot.
“This is the No. 1 contender fight,” Queally told MMA Junkie. “It is. To be honest, Benson and Michael Chandler really is the No. 1 contender fight, if they’re being fair about things, and I understand that. But because it’s his brother, and because of the back-and-forth nature this fight’s going to have and all that’s going to be on the line, when I beat him – I’ll need to beat him convincingly and in an exciting matter – it makes no sense for (Patricio) not to fight me after that.
“So I’m fully confident, like 100 percent sure that if I can get past Patricky, I am jumping the queue – let’s be honest. It should be one of the two lads, (Henderson or Chandler), but it won’t matter. This is not what this business is about, as we all know.”
The rivalry between the two gyms is still brewing, with members of both gyms continuing to trade barbs. It all stemmed from Leandro Higo’s callout of James Gallagher that resulted in a Twitter spat that involved numerous fighters.
With Patricio set to defend his title against Queally’s teammate Pedro Carvalho, and with Patricky facing Queally, SBG and the Pitbull Brothers will get an opportunity to settle their beef in the cage, and Queally is out to prove that SBG is the better team.
“I’m not losing any sleep over him, put it that way. I don’t know how he feels about it, but I do want to beat him up and prove that we are better,” he said. “He’s done a lot of talking, actually – kind of mocking my team, basically, as much as me or whatever, saying SBG this, SBG that. They’re the ones who started this, so it’s going to be nice to put the exclamation mark on who the better team is, and me and Pedro are going to do that.”
Bellator's Peter Queally: If I beat Patricky Freire, I'll jump queue for lightweight title shot
