Patricky, Patricio Pitbull refute Karate Combat president's claims over Miami brawls: 'You are a f***ing liar'
Karate Combat became the center of controversy ahead of its recent event in Miami, when a full-scale brawl broke out at the fighter hotel after weigh-ins on Friday, May 1.The Pitbull brothers Patricio and Patricky Freire found themselves at the heart of the scuffle. Patricky, a former Bellator champion, was gearing up for his Karate Combat debut against lightweight champion Shahzaib Rind. But things took a chaotic turn when Rind and his crew ambushed the brothers family in the hotel lobby, spraying them with water guns and sparking a massive brawl that spilled out to the hotels front entrance.Patricky suffered a cut over his eye in the exchange, ultimately leading to the fights cancelation just one day out from the event. With the Brazilian forced to withdraw, Rind went on to defeat a late-replacement, UFC veteran Andre Ewell, via second-round stoppage.Before the incident occurred, the Pitbull brothers were already suspicious of what theyd gotten into, they told Uncrowned. It started the night prior, when Patricky and Rind had a faceoff in front of the famous Sunray Motel. Patricky and Rind got into a much smaller-scale scuffle that night. Speaking through an interpreter, Patricky told Uncrowned that things had been playful until Rind went chest-to-chest and started pushing him backward. Losing his balance, Patricky applied a body lock, to which Rind responded with elbows. Rind then tried to punch him, Patricky said. Once separated, Rind went for kicks to the head, prompting Patricio to come in for a deescalation attempt.View this post on InstagramPatricio, speaking alongside his brother, told Uncrowned his belief that the whole thing was orchestrated from the beginning, not just by Rind, but by Karate Combat President Asim Zaidi, who coaches and trains Rind at his gym, The Goat Shed in Miami."All this was manipulated by them, Patricio said. They were trying to create something. They wanted Patricky to go alone. And after the issue was resolved, we started seeing posts on Karate Combat social media talking about four-on-one. They did a collab with a Pakistani influencer, and they took down that collab after we started complaining and showed our version of the facts."There are several things you can see on Karate Combat's Instagram with him. You can see the president, who's his coach and manager, doing collabs with him on those kinds of posts. So they created the animosity that led to what happened the other day, because they were instigating people against us. They were saying we were cowards. They even used AI to create an image. If you look at the video, Shahzaib hits me with a slap with an open palm and his glasses in his hand. But if you look at Karate Combat's Instagram right now, we will see the image of him it looks like a perfect hook. You can see my head tilted to the side, and he looks like a movie star. They created that image, they posted it as real in more than one post, and they kept instigating people against us."View this post on InstagramView this post on InstagramThe Pitbull brothers had already begun speaking out against Karate Combat's alleged setup following the hotel brawl. They alleged the water gun attackers to be teammates of Rinds, pointing to pictures posted on their Instagram accounts with the water guns before the incident."Even if that was a prank, a joke, whatever that was, I didn't know who those guys were, Patricio said. I had never seen them before that day. And even if it was a friend of mine, if he did that to my wife, I would have beaten him up too. You can't come to a man's table, spray water at his wife's face, and expect to go out with no repercussions. They attacked us, and they knew there would be a reply. If they mess with our family, things could get uglier. And that's exactly what they were looking for, so much so that they had cameras on."In this case, Patricio noted that they had no idea what was being sprayed from the guns.Speaking Wednesday on Uncrowneds The Ariel Helwani Show, Zaidi refuted any claims that the promotion played a part in the fight week antics. However, because of the incident, he claimed the Florida Athletic Commission suspended both Pitbull brothers. Regardless, he said he still hopes to make the Patricky vs. Rind fight happen in the future.Matheus Aquino the brothers manager clarified their status with the Florida Athletic Commission. As Zaidi mentioned, the commissioner was present for the brawl but didnt witness it in its entirety. Patricky and teammate Diego Brandao are currently on temporary suspension at the time of this publication while the commission reviews all available footage.Patricio believes Zaidi simply tried to control the narrative around the brawls, citing his social media posts. He claimed Zaidi asked their management team to take down their online complaints, while still posting his own attacks on them. The brothers felt Zaidis attempts to be friendly felt disingenuous compared to his online comments.Patricio Pitbull shares texts between him and Asim Zaidi. (Photo Credit: Drake Riggs)Uncrowned (Drake Riggs)"I knew that I would have everything going against me, but I didn't care because I knew how the fight would go, Patricky said. But we had four fighters in Karate Combat, a couple of champions there. One of those, it's been two years since her last fight. She won the title, but they never got her back to fight again. She's stuck in a contract. So I knew there were some things not really proper in the organization. I knew about [Zaidi and Rind] having ties. But coming during this week and after the first altercation, we understood that we were brought there just for engagement, just for clicks. They never had any intention to make the fight happen. They tried to create something at the faceoffs. Things didn't escalate, but they could have escalated there, and the fight would have been canceled. So they did what they did, as they weren't able to get what they wanted, because they wanted me to go alone at the faceoffs. And my brother ended up going with our wives and our coach. Then we had the issue on the day of the [weigh-ins], and they were just doing all those promos."They didn't even put me to fight against Shahzaib for the title. It was a five-round fight, but the title wasn't on the line. Five rounds but no belt. Make it make sense. They had a guy who was a featherweight who was going to fight someone else fight Shahzaib. They had it all figured out. They were just trying to find a way to make me not make it to the fight. They were able to, and they got what they wanted they got the promotion."Since Rinds victory over Ewell, Rind has made posts about fighting in the UFC, calling out Patricio. Rind has never fought in MMA, but Patricky is still willing to take him on if he wants to make the leap.Zaidi may still be open to the concept of the matchup in Karate Combat, but according to Patricio, some wrongs need to be righted first and foremost."First, out of everything, he has to pay my brother. He did make weight. He was ready. He has to apologize for all the things he did, Patricio said.It was all staged, man. You can't find any other excuse for that. They shot us and expect nothing to happen? Of course we're going to beat them. He already knew how we were before. He knew something could escalate that way. It was staged to make us look bad. So they have to turn around and show respect and pay Patricky, make some proper, correct statements about everything."For the sake of their aforementioned teammates, the brothers were skeptical about whether they should even speak out on the incidents and their treatment. The champion they mentioned, Sthefanie Oliveira, was one-and-done in the promotion. She won her lone fight in 2023 and was shelved until this past March, when she returned to MMA.Patricio didnt sugarcoat things, punctuating his and his brothers current stance.Asim, you are a f***ing liar, motherf***er, Patricio said. You didn't pay f***ing nothing for my family or my team. You just paid the flight for my brother and his coach. You told Ariel Helwani that you paid everything. You didn't pay nothing. I can show you the bank statements. We were the ones that paid for everything. You didn't pay for nothing. You are a liar, motherf***er."
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