Sergio Pettis vs Patricio Freire Prediction: Pettis to defend his title with a win

The main event of Bellator 297 involves a bantamweight title battle between two men who are experienced with kicks and the counters that go along with them. In this fight, both Patricio Freire and Sergio Pettis will be aiming to become world champions. Pettis will, however, be defending his title against Freire.

Going into this matchup, Sergio Pettis Sergio has been undefeated in the bout since 2019, having picked up five wins in that span. Those fights were, however, against Tyson Nam, Alfred Khaskakyan, Ricky Bandejas, Juan Archuleta, and his recent fight against Kyoji Horiguchi. In fact, his last loss was in 2018 against Rob Font, having previously lost to Jussier Formiga earlier in October that year, both in round 3. Pettis combines his punches and kicks in an efficient manner, despite not always being as spectacular as his brother. In addition to fluidly integrating his kicking attacks, Pettis' point-fighting style of footwork has well complemented his boxing and is used to power his pulls and returns. Pettis is skilled at maintaining a steady pace throughout fights while usually working behind a sharp jab. Whether Pettis is using his jab defensively to check and pivot or offensively to double it up, the 29-year-old always appears to have his trademark counter ready. As we saw during his first championship defense, Pettis does have a few flashy moves in reserve. He must, however, be cautious of the counterattack that will be coming his way this Friday.

Undoubtedly one of the top Bellator fighters, Patricio Freire has only suffered one defeat in his last 12 contests when recent contests are taken into consideration. Patricio Freire entered the Bellator scene as a heavy-handed brawler with a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, but over the course of his early fighting career with the organization, he slowly improved his striking abilities. He immediately showed that he could go forward off of pressure and feints as well as sit back and counter when necessary. When necessary, Freire can either swiftly enter space to intercept his opponents (like he did in his lightweight title bout with Michael Chandler) or quickly retreat to safety by using a more karate-centric stance. Although I think this stance will still be used this weekend, I'm eager to see if Freire decides to compress the pocket more given his current counterpart's freedom of motion.

Sergio Pettis is in terrific form entering this competition, and we anticipate that he will successfully defend his championship by earning a victory. This battle should definitely go the distance, as I anticipate Patricio Freire to be obstinate and to make things difficult for Pettis here.