Peter Queally thinks he can outlast Patricky Freire. In fact, he’s banking on it.
Queally (13-5-1 MMA, 2-1 BMMA) meets Freire (23-10 MMA, 14-8 BMMA) for the vacant lightweight title in the main event of Bellator 270 on Friday. It’s a rematch from their scrap in May in which Queally won by second-round TKO.
Although it was the doctors who stopped a bloody Freire from continuing against Queally in their first fight, the Irishman was confident he was en route to winning. The implications for their rematch got a whole lot bigger after Patricky’s brother, Patricio Freire, relinquished his title, making the fight for the now-vacant belt. The pair will get two extra rounds to battle, which Queally thinks gives him the advantage.
“I took away a lot of the assumptions I already had that if I pressured him, he would fatigue,” Queally said at a virtual pre-fight news conference Wednesday. “I knew if I just stayed tight and had faith in my guard, the power wouldn’t be an issue – which it wasn’t – and just overall, that my fitness would carry me through that fight. And that’s even more concreted now that this is five rounds. So it’s going to be a war of attrition, and we’ll see how much he can take on the night.
“This is very different and it favors me. Being five rounds is a big favorable swing in my direction. Patricky is an amazing fighter, but the one chink in his armor that he’s shown in his other fights is that he sometimes slows down in the later rounds. So he’s got to be worried about this against me, a guy that doesn’t really slow down. It’s a big, big difference for him.”
Bellator 270 takes place Friday at 3Arena in Dublin. The main card airs on Showtime after prelims on MMA Junkie.
Check out Queally’s full virtual pre-fight news conference in the video above.
