Patricky Pitbull still dealing with neck injury ahead of Bellator 147 rematch with Derek Anderson

Patricky Freire wants to avenge a 2013 loss to Derek Anderson on Dec. 4, but he’s still not 100 percent physically.

Winner of four of five fights since his first clash with Anderson, "Pitbull" admitted he’s still dealing with a neck injury he sustained years ago, when he was still training at Team Nogueira in Rio de Janeiro.

"Everything is fine, my camp was great," Freire told MMAFighting.com. "Actually, I have a little neck injury. I suspect it’s a [herniated disc], but I’m not sure yet. It has been bothering me for a while, but I’m not sure what that is, if it’s really serious. But I’m training well, doing boxing and grappling."

Freire left Team Nogueira to train in Natal after defeating James Edson Berto in 2013, going 3-1 in his next four bouts with wins over David Rickels, Derek Campos and Saad Awad despite the injury.

"It’s an old injury, from my Team Nogueira days," he said. "I hit my head on the wall when I was training jiu-jitsu and my arm went numb and I thought I had a stiff neck, but I didn’t do any exam to find out what the issue was. After this fight, I will go to a doctor because it’s bothering me a lot."

Nine days before getting back inside the cage in San Jose to face Anderson, "Pitbull" rules out any possibility of not fighting because of the injury.

"It won’t get worse before the fight," Freire said. "I do my best to avoid any damage to my neck in training. My teammates know about it, so they don’t force it or anything like that. I will make sure nothing happens before the fight."