When Bellator announced that former Featherweight champion, Pat Curran, would be getting an immediate rematch against Daniel Straus, effectively jumping over tournament winner Patricio ‘Pitbull’ Freire, the MMA world was certainly shocked. Freire initially stated his disappointment about Bellator’s decision to leapfrog him, but apparently there is a lot more that he had to say.

Today on Twitter, Pitbull went on an epic tirade against Bellator: (courtesy of TwitLonger):

Never in my entire career have I felt so disrespected and disappointed. @BellatorMMA announces their tournament brackets and in all of them they only have the champion, on the Featherweight one they have @PatCurranMMA as well. I don’t have anything against Curran himself, what I don’t like is the clear way he’s being favored. I have all the desire in the world to fight and beat him again, not letting it to the judges this time. The issue is not this one. It’s how the entire division is overlooked because of him. What is fair is fair, the only ones who can fight for Bellator’s Featherweight belt are me and Frodo, if Frodo can’t, then it’s me. But the disrespect now goes beyond just the Featherweight division. Why is @kongo4real not there? Why is @MikeChandlerMMA not there? @PhenomLima and @RickHawnMMA will define the champion, I get that. But why is Curran worth of being on the image and the other challengers aren’t? And why do you have it like the tournament winner will fight the winner of @DanielStraus vs Curran? There is a line and it’s being ignored. And what about your champion? Daniel Straus deserves respect. I miss the time when Bellator’s “title shots are earned, not given” were true. Also I miss the time when champions were respected. I want to be respected when I am champion and I think Daniel Straus should get respect for what he achieved. How can I be motivated to fight if I know the people I fight for and I have defended all these years want me to lose? How would you feel if you were me?

Freire is upset and he absolutely has the right to be. It is ridiculous that Bellator passed over two tournament winners to give Curran the immediate rematch. When he lost the belt to Straus at Bellator 106, it was not even a relatively close fight. Patricio Pitbull’s fight with Curran was much closer, and yet Pitbull is overlooked. Clearly Bjorn Rebney and Bellator have some explaining to do in order to please Pitbull.