Brent Primus won his second straight and improved to 10-1 overall on Feb. 22 when he submitted Chris Bungard inside two minutes at Bellator 240. His neck crank of Bungard came on the heels of a 1:20 gogoplata over Tim Wilde in May 2019. The former Bellator lightweight champion hopes with back-to-back finishes, a big fight will be on the horizon.
The issue is, the lightweight champion, Patricio Pitbull, is also the featherweight champ. And the dual-weight champ is currently defending his 145 title through the Bellator Featherweight Grand Prix.
“It sucks, man. It’s kind of putting the whole division on hold,” Primus told MMASucka. “But [Pitbull] deserved it. He beat Michael Chandler and he’s a double champ.”
Pitbull is set to defend his featherweight title against Pedro Carvalho at Bellator 241 on March 13. The championship bout will also serve as the grand prix’s quarterfinals. Primus said he hopes if Pitbull wins and advances to the semifinals, he’d relinquish the lightweight belt. If Pitbull loses, Primus believes it’s time he defends the 155 strap.
Pitbull won the lightweight title against Chandler in May 2019 after Chandler won it from Primus in their rematch.
Primus, 2-0 since the first loss of his professional career, said either he or former UFC champion Benson Henderson should be Pitbull’s next challenger at lightweight. Still, Primus believes he edges Henderson for the next shot.
“Honestly, I don’t think [Henderson] really looked that well in his last two fights. I think he lost that fight to Adam Piccolotti 2 to 1. For me, I think I should fight Patricio, for sure.”
Primus also said he’d like Bellator to consider creating an interim lightweight title if Pitbull continues to focus on his featherweight title.
“If he doesn’t defend that title soon, then I think it makes sense to have an interim belt so they know who’s next for sure for that title fight,” Primus said. “I think it would make sense and it’d be pretty cool. I heard Bellator saying they don’t want to do an interim belt, but I think they should.”
Primus said if Bellator were to do an interim belt, the combatants should be him vs. either Henderson or Chandler.
Chandler knocked out Sidney Outlaw in his most recent bout since losing the lightweight title to Pitbull, while Henderson secured wins over Piccolotti and Myles Jury. However, if Primus gets another crack at a title, the opponent doesn’t matter.
“I’m down to fight anybody for that belt,” he said.
In Primus’ most recent bout against Bungard, he took his opponent down early. He survived a pair of elbows while shooting in that he said “buzzed” his whole spine, but that was the only time he was hurt. From there, Primus secured a neck crank and forced Bungard to tap.
“Honestly, I didn’t have too much of a game plan,” he said. “I was going with the flow. I was going to try to stand up with him. My coaches also kind of wanted me to take him down in the first round, kind of wear him out so he’d be a lot slower in the second and third. I just kind of saw an opening, shot in, and it happened how it did.”
