Pettis on Jones: It’s hard
Anthony Pettis: “I lost my dad to that kind of stuff, so I already knew. I feel like I have a strong willpower not to get mixed up in that stuff. Anybody else, I think it’s hard.”
UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is currently the subject of more criticism and ridicule than any figure in the MMA space in memory. A few defenders have pointed out that most of us don’t know what it is like to be 27, a UFC star, one of the top pound for pound fighters on Earth.
Anthony Pettis knows. And he understands, to a point.
It’s hard, Pettis told John Morgan for MMA Junkie. Jon’s young. He’s my age: 27. You get put in front of a lot of people who care about who you are and there’s some negative energy around that, as well. Some people don’t want to see you do good or want to introduce you to things will bring you down, and it’s kind of up to you. You’ve got to be strong-willed. You’ve got to know what to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to.
For me, I lost my dad to that kind of stuff, so I already knew. I feel like I have a strong willpower not to get mixed up in that stuff. Anybody else, I think it’s hard. It’s definitely there. It’s around you at parties you go to and events you go to. These people have a different level of income and a different amount of money and it might be presented to you in a different way than somebody would in your neighborhood. That’s how it is for me.
If somebody presented it to me in my neighborhood I’d be like, ‘No, I don’t want to be like you. You’re not doing as good as I am.’ But then you see people doing way better than you and they’re doing it and presenting it to you in a different way, it’s hard to juggle. You have to be careful.”
Me, I brought my brother out here to Las Vegas. Traveling with people helps out a lot. It keeps you on track. It’s very easy to lose focus on the goal.”
I think a lot of athletes get caught up in that thing. You just have to be careful. I lost my dad, and I see other people where I came from and how they live their life, and I don’t want to get mixed up with that, so I think that’s what keeps me away from it.
Anthony Pettis fights Rafael Dos Anjos at UFC 185 on March 14, 2015 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.