Season Four Featherweight Tournament champion Patricio "Pitbull" Friere (17-1-0) has suffered a broken left hand and is forced to withdraw from Bellator 47, July 23, 2011, where he was to challenge promotion champion Joe Warren (7-1-0) in the main-event of Bellator's inaugural Canadian show in Orillia, Ontario.
A winner of three straight, Freire has been impressive in 2011, rebounding from his June 2010 loss to Warren - which came via split decision - with consecutive knockout stoppages of Georgi Karakhanyan and Wilson Reis. Earning his rematch in 2011, the bout was to mark Warren's first title defense since capturing the belt from Joe Soto in September of 2010. Warren did however compete in a non-title contest this past April, defeating Marcos Galvao by unanimous decision at Bellator 41.
The injury was reported Tuesday by Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney and Freire posted the following shortly after on his twitter account:
“Now that Bellator made it official, it’s true,” Freire wrote. “I won’t be able to fight Warren this month. Saturday, I heard it will take me four months to be able to fight again. I’m already focusing on recovering as fast as I can so I can have my shot at the belt.”
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