Still looking for a fight almost three months after his third UFC matchup was ruled out, Patricio Freire is willing to knock on several doors.
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Freire, a former Bellator lightweight and featherweight champion and the most successful fighter in that promotion’s history, was supposed to fight Losene Keita at UFC Fight Night 258 in early September. Keita weighed three pounds, “Pitbull” didn’t call out Joy and the fight was called off.
Freire (37-8 MMA, 1-1 UFC) signed with the UFC earlier this year after he was able to get out of his PFL contract after that promotion bought Bellator and shut him down. He lost a decision to Yair Rodriguez at UFC 314 in April, but bounced back in July with an upset over Dan Ige in New Orleans.
Fellow featherweight Lerone Murphy recently posted on social media that he wants to fight “every month” like Kevin Holland tries, and Freire responded by suggesting they fight in January. And when Movsar Evloev told Murphy in a post that he would like to see him fight another top contender, Freire stepped in and suggested he and Evloev fight.
At 38 years old, time isn’t necessarily running out for Freire as a UFC featherweight, but it certainly is ticking. Alexander Volkanovski recently regained the title, which he lost to Ilia Topuria, when he defeated Diego Lopes for the newly vacated belt after Topuria moved up to lightweight.
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Freire is ranked 12th in the official UFC featherweight rankings. Evloev is the number one contender in the ranking, followed by Lopes, RodrÃguez and Murphy.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Patricio Freire wants UFC fights with Movsar Evloev, Lerone Murphy