Patricio Pitbull will not be participating in the upcoming PFL vs. Bellator event in Saudi Arabia after his opponent, Gabriel Braga, was announced as “unable to compete,” with no clear reason given for the withdrawal.
Well, here’s a bummer. Patricio Pitbull is out of the Saturday PFL vs. Bellator pay-per-view event in Saudi Arabia. Why? Gabriel Braga, his opponent, pulled out. This is according to multiple insiders who spilled the beans to MMA Fighting, following an initial report by MMAjunkie.
PFL made it official. Braga? “Unable to compete.” That’s all they said.
Here’s the backstory. Pitbull, who’s the reigning Bellator featherweight champ, was originally set to square off against Jesus Pinedo. Pinedo, by the way, clinched the 145-pound season in PFL back in 2023. But then, Braga stepped in. Why? Pinedo had to withdraw. The irony? Braga lost to Pinedo in the 2023 finals.
Why the withdrawal? That’s the million-dollar question. No one knows.
Braga was initially set to fight Aaron Pico on the undercard. But then, he got bumped up to the match with Pitbull on the pay-per-view segment. This was supposed to be his first MMA fight since his dad and head coach, Diego Braga, was tragically murdered in January.
Pitbull? He was hoping to bounce back from consecutive losses to Sergio Pettis and future RIZIN titleholder Chihiro Suzuki. The Pettis fight was a shot at the Bellator bantamweight title. The Suzuki fight? A last-minute lightweight contest in Japan. Now, it’s up in the air whether Pitbull will enter the 2024 PFL season or stick to defending his title in Bellator.
Who’s replacing the Pitbull-Braga bout on the main card? PFL’s keeping mum. But we do know that Renan Ferreira and Ryan Bader, the heavyweight champs of PFL and Bellator, are headlining the event.
Shoutout to Mike Heck. He helped with this report.
Oh, and ignore that Instagram embed script at the end. It’s not part of the story.