The Coronavirus Chronicles: Pedro Carvalho

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Although Pedro Carvalho’s championship bout against Patricio Freire at Bellator 241 fell through—as a result of the coronavirus pandemic—the plan still is for the featherweight grand prix quarter-finalists to face off at a later date. When they do, Carvalho expects to show why he is a far greater threat to the champion than previous title challengers Emmanuel Sanchez and Juan Archuleta.

“The simple fact is I’m a better fighter than they are. Period,” Carvalho told Sherdog. “Break it down fight by fight. Sanchez is really good on pressure and cardio. The difference between me and him mainly is I can throw less shots, but my shots—each one—is going with precision, intention and they’re probably going to land. Most of his shots are just throwing. He’s throwing volume. He’s not throwing with intention. He’s not setting things up. He’s a savage [and] I like Sanchez’s style, but you can see when he’s throwing things it’s just like warrior style. You can see there’s not a plan behind it, and that’s a big difference. And with Archuleta, I was there. I was cage side [at Bellator 228] and I could see that he wasn’t there. From the very beginning. I think the main fact there was he was respecting Patricio too much [and] Patricio was aware of that.”

Along with talking about his planned matchup with Freire, Carvalho also spoke about Bellator 241 and its last-minute postponement, as well as his thoughts when he found out the news and when he foresees the bout being rebooked. He also spoke about September’s grand prix selection show and how he ended up placed in a title fight. Plus, he talked about the coronavirus situation at home for him and his family in Portugal.