It’s widely considered to be the greatest kick in MMA history.
16 December 2010 at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Arizona, was the final fight for the World Extreme Fighting, as the UFC was about to absorb the entire league. Anthony Showtime Pettis fought Benson “Smooth” Henderson in the WEC 53 main event. The winner would become the perpetual WEC lightweight champion.
Pettis took a unanimous decision, sealed with a technique he later dubbed “The Showtime Kick.”
It turns out it was inspired by the martial-arts classic “Ong Bak.”
“I just believe in being creative,” said Pettis’ coach Duke Roufus to MMAjunkie.com. “Anthony is a lifelong martial artist, and I’m a lifelong martial artist, and we’re just trying to keep evolving and blend it all together.”
“I’ve been trying a bunch of different stuff. Bringing out some of the old-school Muay Thai techniques where you climb up on people and land techniques. It’s using his athleticism and surprise attack, and being able to put different elements of the game together.”
“You saw that at UFC 100 when Alan Belcher threw the ‘superman’ punch off the cage. I’ve been working a lot of cage techniques. It’s just like when soccer changed. They started playing indoor soccer on hockey rinks. Kickboxing changes when you put it into that cage. There’s a lot of tactics you can employ.”
Now Pettis joins breakdown master Robin Black to explain how it happened, as well as his knockout of Joe Lauzon at UFC 144.
Pettis went on to fight Henderson again, over three years later, and submit him with an armbar to earn the UFC lightweight championship as well. Pettis lost his title to Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 185 on March 14, 2015, in a clear decision. He lost his next one to Eddie Alvarez on January 17 at UFC Fight Night: Dillashaw vs. Cruz by a controversial split decision. At 29, with one of the greatest camps in the world at RoufuSports, there remains plenty of time for Pettis to regain the title once again.
