UNCASVILLE, Conn. – [autotag]Pedro Carvalho[/autotag] isn’t letting his emotions get the best of him ahead of Bellator 241.
An SBG Ireland fighter, Carvalho (11-3 MMA, 4-0 BMMA) takes on featherweight champion Patricio Freire, who trains out of Pitbull Brothers in Brazil. The two main-event fighters’ home gyms engaged in a war of words on Twitter in recent months, which spilled into Monday’s press conference in New York.
Despite this, Carvalho isn’t getting emotionally invested, he told MMA Junkie at a pre-fight media day Wednesday.
“I wasn’t emotionally invested at all,” Carvalho said. “I was just having fun. They were the ones looking emotionally invested. I was just having a craic in the end. Like I said, I’m cold-blooded in this game. I don’t take anything personally in this game. I see no names and I see no faces. I don’t care what they say. At the time, I was having some fun. It’s homegrown. I don’t make this personal. It’s all about me and myself. Nothing more. The rest is rest.”
In the lead-up to Friday’s event, Freire (30-4 MMA, 18-4 BMMA) made comments that Carvalho and his teammates try too hard to emulate their fellow SBG member and former UFC champion Conor McGregor. Carvalho disagrees.
“That’s just stupid,” Carvalho said. “It’s someone that has no arguments. They have nothing to say about us. He goes for the basic. It’s just stupid and proves he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. … I’m real and unique in my own way. I’m not trying to be someone else. I’m just me – truthfully, me. I know who I am. I don’t need to prove nothing to anyone else. What matters to me is I’m going to be locked with him inside of the cage. We’ll see the rest.”
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As for the fight itself, Carvalho will step into the cage for his first Bellator title fight. Despite the stakes, the 24-year-old featherweight said it doesn’t seem much different.
“It’s been all the same,” Carvalho said. “It’s just another fight. It’s just another day at the office. At the end of the day, it is special, of course. We’re talking about the world belt, but at the same time, I don’t want to make it special because I still have two more men to beat. I’m still in the tournament. I still have a lot to do and I’m still far, far away from my ultimate goal. My ultimate goal isn’t being world champion. My ultimate goal is being one of the greatest – to prove to the whole world I’m the best. I’m so far away from that.”
When he plays the fight out in his head, Carvalho doesn’t see the fight going the distance. He predicts he’ll finish the longtime Bellator MMA staple. If he does, he’ll be only the second man to do so.
“I’m going to finish Patricio ‘Pitbull,'” Carvalho said. “I’m going to go out there and make him work. I’m going to see his breaking point, pick my shots, and then he’ll show me the finish. That’s it.”
Bellator 241 takes place Friday at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The main card streams on DAZN following prelims on MMA Junkie.
Check out MMA Junkie’s full Bellator 241 pre-fight interview with Pedro Carvalho in the video above.
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