Mississauga, Ont. lightweight Adam De Freitas has aspirations to perform on some of MMA’s grandest stages, and soon.
At 33 years old, competing in what is perhaps the sport’s most cutthroat weight class, De Freitas (1-1) is honest about the challenges ahead, yet eager to meet them head on. He will not have to wait much longer, as he meets New Jerseyite Ryan Rizco (2-1) at this Friday’s CFFC 93 event in Philadelphia, Pa.
CFFC is one of the longest-running professional promotions on the U.S. East Coast, and its Philadelphia cards have historically served as a showcase for fighters working their way toward the major leagues — exactly the audience De Freitas is trying to reach. For a Canadian pro willing to cross the border, a U.S. regional win on a card like this travels further than most domestic results.
While De Freitas recognizes the danger his opponent presents, he believes at this point in his career, the taller the order, the more meaningful the victory.
“I didn’t think twice about taking the fight. I mean, I don’t analyze my opponents too much, but from what I can see he’s a high-level guy. Renzo Gracie brown belt, athletic, top-heavy guy. I took this fight because it’s a tough fight,” said De Freitas in an interview with MMA Empire.
“You know, both feet in reality, I don’t have the time to fight cans and bums. I have to fight high-level guys and win in highlight-reel fashion to fast-track my career.”
Since turning professional in 2017, all but two of his scheduled bookings have fallen through, with most of his opponents backing out at the last minute.
It is one of regional MMA's least glamorous realities: professional bouts evaporate at a rate fans rarely see, since fighters pull out over injuries, weight issues, contract disputes or simple cold feet. For a part-time professional like De Freitas, every fallen booking represents not just lost cage time but months of training expenses with no payday to show for it.
He looks to make up for those lost opportunities this Friday with a statement win, in the hope of attracting the attention of a Bellator or other major promotion.
That fast-track mentality is a calculated gamble, but a reasonable one in his position. Major promotions scouting regional talent tend to weigh quality of opposition and decisive finishes more heavily than the raw win column, and a 33-year-old with a day job has a narrower window to build the kind of resume that gets a call than a prospect in his early twenties does.
“In fight years, at 33, especially being 1-1 and having so many fights cancelled, I haven’t had the chance to build up the record, and it’s not for lack of trying. It took two years trying to get opponents to show up,” said De Freitas.
A newly-minted father and full-time tactical officer in a Canadian law enforcement agency, De Freitas is used to having multiple plates in the air at once.
But after suffering his first professional loss in 2020, he said he knew he needed a focused camp as free as possible from distractions.
“I have a good career already. Obviously, I’m not walking away from that. Now, I can take off time to do fight camps, but I can’t do four, five camps a year; I’m lucky if I can fight two to three times. So, every time I fight, it’s got to be a high-level opponent,” said De Freitas.
“Obviously, I’m in it to make a career though, to make a stand. I’d love to fight in one of the bigger shows.”
De Freitas isn’t sure whether his interest in martial arts preceded his aspirations in law enforcement or instead coincided with them, but says the parallels are mental more than physical, such as the ability to perform under stress.
“It all combines into the fact that I have a relationship with violence,” said De Freitas.
“It’s not that I try to show it off or anything, but I love knowing violence and being able to control violence.”
De Freitas recently moved his training from Parabellum MMA to Niagara Top Team and, despite the complications of the ongoing pandemic, said he’s enjoying one of the best camps of his career.
“It’s been a lot more of choosing who I’m working with in more of a small, isolated group, but I’m still training with high-quality partners. It’s just that things have to be a bit more structured in advance. I can’t just pick up and go,” said De Freitas.
After losing his last fight, De Freitas realized his level of commitment to fighting was not commensurate with the level of competition he was facing, and has approached this camp with a comprehensive, no-stone-unturned attitude.
The professionalization of his camps — dedicated pad work, structured nutrition, a managed weight cut — mirrors the resource-heavy approach fighters at larger promotions take as standard. At the regional level it remains a differentiator: the athlete who can afford to outsource those logistics typically arrives at the cage fresher and better prepared than the one juggling them alone.
“I’ve hired someone to just be a dedicated pad-holder almost every day,” De Freitas said.
“And the cut to lightweight is definitely not easy, but I’m not cutting twenty pounds of water the night before. This camp I said ‘I have to take my fight camps to the professional level,’ so I hired someone to monitor my weight, my nutrition, and do my weight cut for me.”
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