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Scott Coker on why Patricky Freire vs. Peter Queally is for vacant lightweight title, says Brent Primus next in line

PHOENIX – For Scott Coker, the lightweight picture was pretty easy to figure out after Patricio Freire vacated his belt.

Coker said Freire’s main reason behind relinquishing his title was to give his brother, Patricky Freire, (23-10 MMA, 14-8 BMMA) his chance to shine. So for the Bellator boss, it was a no brainer to make the already booked lightweight fight between Freire and Peter Queally (13-5-1 MMA, 2-1 BMMA) for the vacant belt.

“If you look at our rankings, the No. 1 contender was Patricky,” Coker told MMA Junkie and other reporters Saturday at the Bellator 268 post-fight news conference. “So we went with that. When we negotiated this with Patricio, it was very clear: ‘I’m letting this go for my brother to have his shot,’ and if the brother wins, he doesn’t want to be the guy to fight the brother. So that’s why he was like, ‘OK, I’ll let it go. I’m going to focus on 145.'”

One fighter who thought he was snubbed out of the lightweight title fight is Brent Primus (11-2 MMA, 9-2 BMMA), who beat Benson Henderson by unanimous decision Saturday at Bellator 268.

Primus said he would be ready to fill in for either Freire or Queally when they square off in the Bellator 270 main event Nov. 5 at 3Arena in Dublin, but Coker said the former champion is next, anyway.

“What I will say is, look: Mow Primus will have his shot after this fight,” Coker said. “This fight is going to happen in a matter of weeks, but come January, February, maybe the winner of Queally and Patricky can fight Primus.”

You can watch Coker’s entire post-fight interview in the video above.

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