Former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis feels as he has a new chapter in his pro-MMA career after struggling.
Pettis has been on a roller coaster ride over his last few bouts. Since dropping the lightweight title to Rafael Dos Anjos back in March of 2015, he has suffered four losses in six fights. Part of that lack of success includes a stint in the featherweight division. He picked up a win at featherweight before an interim title bout with Max Holloway at UFC 206.
However, Pettis lost that bout and went back to lightweight. He then picked up a unanimous-decision win over Jim Miller at UFC 213. Pettis faced Dustin Poirier on November 11, 2017 at UFC Fight Night 120 but lost the fight after tapping out due to a broken rib in the third round, although it was announced as a TKO win. In his latest fight, he scored a submission win over Michael Chiesa at the UFC 226 pay-per-view event.
Now, he’s slated to fight former UFC interim champion Tony Ferguson at the upcoming UFC 229 pay-per-view event. In a recent interview, Pettis admitted that losing to RDA back in 2015 put a mental block on him that he couldn’t get past for a bit. However, now, leading into UFC 229, he feels that he’s past it and hopes to continue his winning ways.
“RDA was the better man that night. I finally admitted it to myself,” Pettis told ESPN on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “I was on top of the world and then that happens to you. I’ve never even been hit in any of my fights, basically. Then the RDA fight happens and you have to readjust.
”It’s a mental block. You know what happened and want to get past it, but you also know how good you are and it’s a battle in your own head that you had to figure out.”
“I love it,” Pettis says of the matchup. “I think he has a great fighting style. He’s one of the guys who comes and brings it. I’m excited to get in there with a guy like that. He’s going to try to finish the fight, and that’s what I’m trying to do the whole time.”
The UFC 229 pay-per-view event is set to take place on Saturday, October 6, 2018 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The main card will air on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET while the preliminary card will air on FOX Sports 1 at 8 p.m. ET and the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass.
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