Back in the spring of 2010, almost 15 years to the day before this weekend’s UFC 314 pay-per-view, a 22-year-old Patricio Pitbull left Brazil for the first time to compete. He traveled to Connecticut, of all places, to partake in the Bellator Season 2 featherweight tournament against a Canadian fellow named WiIliam Romero. As a trademark jiu-jitsu specialist from Brazil, he tapped Romero quickly. A heel hook in the first round.
It was his first major triumph.
Two months later he lost a split decision to Joe Warren in the featherweight finals, which was his first big setback. Within a two-month span, Pitbull experienced the highs and lows of fighting, a back-and-forth that would become a working theme throughout his career for the next 15 years. It’s followed him all the way to the UFC, where he debuts against Yair Rodriguez on Saturday night at UFC 314 as a multi-time, two-division champion looking to add one more title to his collection in the twilight of a remarkable career.
How did Pitbull — the very picture of perseverance — arrive here?
“I couldn't tell you something specific, but I think that it’s just that I want to always be the best,” he says. “I want to be perfect. The reason for my entire life is that I want to be the best in everything that I do.”
This all started long before he took off his shoes for money. This started way back in Mossoro in the early 1990s, at the beer gut of Brazil’s geography that protrudes into the Atlantic, Rio Grande do Norte, where he and his brother Patricky would brawl at the drop of a hat before either was old enough to read Dr. Seuss. The two were always throwing hands, head-locking each other, and tossing each other to the other side of the room whenever parental heads were turned. It was contentious in the Pitbull household. You might say that the Pitbull brothers, whose birthname is Freire, had what’s called a natural aptitude for fighting.
Unofficially, Patricio had a thousand amateur fights with Patricky, an endless battle that raged on even (especially?) as the brothers formed their own gym in 2010.
“It’s too many to count,” Patricio says. “I really can't tell you how many times we fought. It was daily for many reasons, for every reason, and for many years. And I see this [same thing] with my two sons right now. They are just like me and Patricky were back then — they fight for everything.
“And then when we started training martial arts, it wasn't just brothers, it became real fights — we would take each other down, we would look for submissions, we would do everything, but we would avoid punching to the face. Everything else was allowed. And so, I can say that my biggest and my longest sparring partner has been my ...
