By:  | July 30, 2023 4:16 pm

Patrickโ€™s Freire felled Roberto de Souza like a mighty oak in their all Brazilian battle at Rizin x Bellator 2. A leg kick completely immobilised the late notice replacement at the start of the third round.

The fight started slowly with de Souza frustrated in his first attempt to get the fight to the ground. Freire did land a couple of punches in the closing stages of a very uneventful round.

De Souza shot for a takedown and pulled guard at the start of the second but Freire elected to remain on his feet. The former Bellator lightweight champion scored with a flying knee and looked set to finish the show but elected to allow his opponent to get back up as the round came to an end.

Calf kick

At the start of the third Freire landed a devastating calf kick to de Souzaโ€™s front leg. The Rizin lightweight champion was clearly done and the referee stepped in to save him from first her punishment.

The finish came at the 0:49 mark and takes Freire to 25-11. He also advanced to the semi finals of the lightweight tournament despite this catchweight contest being set at 160lbs.

De Souza drops to 15-3. He remains the Rizin lightweight champion but his reputation has clearly been tarnished by two losses to Bellator fighters in the space of just over six months, even if he did take this one at very short notice.

Best of the rest

The co-main event ended in an anticlimactic no contest. Kyoji Horiguchi accidentally poked Makoto Takahashi in the eye in virtually the first exchange of the fight meaning the Bellator flyweight title remains vacant.

Bellator x Rizin 2, Tokyo, July 30th
Patricky Freire def. Roberto de Souza via TKO (Leg kicks) at 0:49 of R3
Kyoji Horiguchi via Makoto Takahashi ends in No Contest (Accidental eye poke) at 0:25 of R1
Kana Watanabe def. Veta Arteaga via Decision (Unanimous)
Magomed Magomedov def. Danny Sabatello via Submission (Guillotine choke) at 3:55
of R1
Andrey Koreshkov def. Lorenz Larkin via Decision (Split)