Every fighter has a tough night now and then, but March 14 is a date Anthony and Sergio Pettis won’t be forgetting anytime soon.
The Pettis brothers both competed at UFC 185 that night in Dallas, and both suffered painful losses at the hands of their respective opponents. For the younger Pettis, it was a drastic turn of fortune, as the up-and-coming prospect watched a dominant first round fade to dust after Ryan Benoit caught him with a powerful left hand in his flyweight debut. Benoit’s punch crumpled Pettis to the canvas, and the Texas native finished the bout moments later with a flurry of shots.
While a fighter getting caught in an exchange is certainly nothing new in mixed martial arts, being a big brother and seeing that happen to your sibling is a different ballgame. The older of the Pettis brothers watched the action from his locker room and, once his younger sibling was felled, was forced to regather and regroup to prepare for his upcoming title defense against Rafael dos Anjos later that night.
Then, as the story goes, the Duke Roufus protege found himself at the end of an extended beating at the hands of “RDA.” In what currently stands as the most lackluster showing of his career—and one that cost him the lightweight title—Pettis‘ normally dynamic offense was shut down from the opening bell to the last. The Kings MMA representative was able to neutralize his stand-up attack then dominate Pettis once the action hit the mat.
The former lightweight champion was a guest on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, where he spoke to Ariel Helwani about his recent performance. While Pettis admits he isn’t quite sure what happened to him physically in Dallas, he was positive he doesn’t want to deal with the emotional roller coaster of competing on the same card as his younger brother going forward.
The biggest thing I think I’m gonna change is me and my little bro fighting on the same card. The first time it went amazing, the second time not so well. He got knocked out, I had to watch that and get up mentally for my fight. Not making excuses or nothing, but them little things could have triggered my performance.
He gets knocked out and then you gotta reset the battery, reset everything and try to get back up for the next fight. I think it was just a little bit too much for everybody emotionally to go through. Next time if I’m fighting in a big fight like that, it has to be all about me.
With suffering the loss to dos Anjos at UFC 185, Pettis will now have to bounce back from the first defeat he’s suffered since his UFC debut in 2011 against Clay Guida. In his fight with “The Carpenter,” the Milwaukee native was essentially outwrestled and pinned down for the majority of the 15-minute affair. While dos Anjos certainly did his fair share of work with the fight on the canvas, the Brazilian veteran was able to do substantial damage while the fight was on the feet as well.
In fact, it was a powerful left hand he landed in the early stages of the bout that really set the tone for things to come. Pettis was dazed upon impact—it was later revealed he suffered a cracked orbital bone in the exchange—and was forced to go on the defensive for the remained of the fight. And even though his blurred vision certainly played a factor in his performance, Pettis is still not sure what went wrong in the main event at UFC 185.
That said, he’s adamant about getting his weaknesses shored up and returning to “Showtime” form in his next bout.
Yeah, I’m definitely upset with myself. I’m definitely down about losing my belt, but that wasn’t the best Anthony Pettis. He didn’t go out there and demolish my best performance. Then [I’d be] like yeah I need to figure out why I suck at what I do. I just didn’t put it together. It just wasn’t my night.
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
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