Anthony Pettis won four in a row in the WEC, capped with winning the title vs. Benson Henderson; it included landing an ‘of the Century’ kick. Then the WEC was folded into the UFC, and life was tougher in the big show.
Pettis’s first UFC fight was a decision loss to Clay Guida, and then he got a split decision over Jeremy Stephens. That was 2011. What happened next is one of the great runs in UFC history, and landed Pettis on the Wheaties Box.
Pettis knocked out Joe Lauzon in the first – KO of the Night. He knocked out Cowboy Cerrone in the first, with a body kick – KO of the Night. Then the blue belt tapped Benson Henderson in the first, winning both the Submission of the Night, and the UFC lightweight championship. In his first title defense, he tapped out Gilbert Melenez, El Nino’s first submission loss; that got a performance bonus too.
And then … Pettis lost his title via Unanimous Decision to Rafael dos Anjos. He lost to Eddie Alvarez via Split Decision. Lost to Edson Barboza via Unanimous Decision. The only way back up was down, to 145.
In his featherweight debut Pettis tapped Charles Oliveira, but looked cadaverous. Saturday night he had a fight with Max Holloway for the interim title. A win would have made him just the fourth fighter in UFC history to win a belt in two divisions. But he missed weight, losing out on the shot at a belt. And he got beaten.
In the Octagon, he told color commentator Joe Rogan he was moving back up.
“It’s too much to make the cut,” said Pettis, as transcribed by Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting. “I was dying from the weight cut. They literally had to pull me out the sauna. I depleted my body. It’s too much to cut.”
“I have to [return to 155]. I can’t make the 145 weight cut. It’s too hard.”
Adding injury to insult, he also broke his hand in the fight, and will have surgery this week.
“The first punch,” said Pettis. “The first punch I hit him, hit the top of his head, broke my hand. It’s swollen right here. I gotta go deal with that s***. But Max Holloway is a beast, bro. Give the dude credit. He stood with me and he got the belt, man.”
