Former RIZIN featherweight champion, Kleber Koike, has spoken out about an incident where the Pitbull brothers accused him of invading their locker room and attacking Patricky, culminating in a brawl, claiming the issue arose because comments he made on his YouTube channel were mistranslated by a member of the Pitbull entourage.
The former RIZIN featherweight champion, Kleber Koike, has recently decided to speak out about an altercation he had with Bellator stars Patricio Pitbull and Patricky Pitbull, which took place behind the scenes at Super RIZIN 2 in Saitama, Japan. The Pitbull brothers shared on social media immediately after the event, accusing Koike of entering their dressing room uninvited and initiating a surprise attack on Patricky. The incident happened immediately after Patricky had gained a victory over one of Koike’s team members, Roberto Satoshi. Patricio, on the other hand, had suffered a knockout defeat at the hands of Chihiro Suzuki. Although Koike was initially silent about the incident, he later changed his stance after witnessing the Bellator fighters discussing the matter on social media and in various interviews.
Koike believes that the root of the contention between both teams can be traced back to a mistranslation. He controls a YouTube channel in Japan, where he posted a pre-event video giving his predictions. In that video, he favored Patricky against his original adversary A.J. McKee, who was subsequently replaced by Satoshi. Nevertheless, he openly criticized both Freire brothers for siding with his “rival” Mikuru Asakura instead of Kyohei Hagiwara, who had previously trained at Pitbull Brothers in Brazil. Further conflict arose when a member of Freire’s crew, Fernando Inafuku, who is based in Japan, was accused by Koike of misinterpreting his comments to Pitbull’s team. Inafuku allegedly told the Bellator fighters that Koike had used a derogatory term against them.
Koike passionately expressed his disappointment and frustration with Inafuku on an episode of Trocação Franca. “First of all, there’s not even a word in Japanese for ‘b***h.’” he stated, “I’ve lived here for 20 years, and my Japanese isn’t good, but this guy can’t speak Japanese. Second, he claims I said the Pitbull brothers were in the end of their careers, that they were old, that they were with Asakura for money. I never said those words. This Fernando guy was trying to cause this rift. He’s a nobody in Japan.”
He also mentioned that he was oblivious to the Pitbull brothers’ anger towards him. It appeared that everything was fine when they met at the hotel during the fight week, as nothing was mentioned then. He attended the event intending to challenge the winner of Vugar Karamov vs. Mikuru Asakura for the vacant 145-pound title. He had tipped Patricio to beat Suzuki on a week’s notice in what he termed a “misfit.” Instead, he was caught by surprise when Suzuki knocked Freire out in the opening stanza, practically transforming from an unknown figure to a star overnight in Japan. The shock of Freire’s defeat led to a physical altercation between Koike and Patricky, which was not received well by the Bellator staff present. Koike voiced his concerns to RIZIN officials about possible repercussions for Patricky, highlighting that assault is a crime in Japan.