It’s not every day that two mixed martial arts organisations work together to promote an event, but that’s exactly what happening this weekend in Saitama, Japan. For the second time, Bellator MMA and the Rizin Fighting Federation will unite for a Bellator x Rizin event, featuring a main event between two of their top fighters.
The plan was for Patricky Freire—known as Pitbull—to fight AJ McKee in a hotly anticipated bad blood encounter. However, with McKee withdrawing due to a medical condition, the main event will now be between Pitbull and Rizin’s Lightweight Champion, Roberto de Souza. With de Souza looking to bounce back after losing in the inaugural Bellator x Rizin event and Pitbull eager to get his career headed in the right direction as well, this should be a riveting clash on Saturday night.
We break down all the latest Bellator x Rizin 2 odds with bet365 and outline the best bets to make on this bout ahead of the weekend.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: July 29th, 2:00 A.M. (GMT)
Bookmaker bet365 has this clash tight but ultimately in favour of Roberto de Souza, the late replacement. De Souza pays 1.60 for the outright win while Patricky Freire is slightly behind on 2.35 to win on Saturday night. No major bookmakers are offering method of victory or round betting odds at this point, but we say there’s still money to be made by making the correct outright winner bet on this fight.
With defeat fresh in the mouths of both fighters, this match-up is about as high stakes as it gets in mixed martial arts. For Pitbull, he’s in the middle of a difficult 1-3 stretch dating back to 2019. In this time, he’s lost the Bellator Lightweight Championship to Usman Nurmagomedov, while also going down to Tofiq Musayev and Peter Queally. However, prior to this, Freire was on a three year, seven fight unbeaten streak, and won’t be ready to roll over on his career just yet.
De Souza, on the other hand, has a much cleaner record than his opponent with only two professional losses in his 15-2-0 career. One of these came recently against AJ McKee, and while the Brazilian bounced back with a win over Spike Carlyle in May 2023, the 33-year-old will still be motivated to prove that result was an anomaly.
We say backing Pitbull for the outright win is the best bet here, given that the 37-year-old has a little more on the line here. Lose, and his career is virtually over. Win and it’s all back on and the prospect of retiring at the top is on the cards.
