Sergio
Pettis was labeled a bust by some, but he has spent the last
three-plus years fulfilling much of the promise his dynamic skills
foretold long ago.
The longtime Duke Roufus protégé will defend his undisputed
Bellator
MMA bantamweight championship opposite reigning featherweight
titleholder
Patricio
Freire in the
Bellator 297 co-main event on Friday at Wintrust Arena in
Chicago. Pettis, 29, has rattled off five consecutive victories,
four of them as a member of the Bellator roster. He last appeared
at Bellator 272, where he zapped
Kyoji
Horiguchi with a spectacular spinning backfist in the fourth
round of their Dec. 3, 2021 clash.
As Pettis prepares to return to the cage for the first time in well
over a year, a look at five of the many moments that have come to
define him:
1. Allow Me to Introduce Myself
Pettis made a successful
Ultimate Fighting Championship debut when took a unanimous
decision from
Will
Campuzano as part of the UFC 167 undercard on Nov. 16, 2013 at
the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Scores were 30-27, 30-27
and 29-28. Campuzano—a former Legacy Fighting Championship
titleholder who replaced the injured
Vaughan Lee
on short notice—relied heavily on takedowns, scoring with them in
the first and third rounds. However, they were not enough to
counteract the dynamic offensive attack from Pettis. “The Phenom”
wrecked Campuzano’s lead leg with low kicks, threatened him with a
modified guillotine choke in Round 2 and cracked the game Texan
with punching combinations and well-placed knees. The setback was
Camupzano’s in nearly three years and closed the book on his
five-fight winning streak.
2. Chin Check
Benoit sprang the upset and put away the burgeoning
Roufusport star with punches in the second round of their UFC
185 flyweight prelim on March 14, 2015 at American Airlines Center
in Dallas. Pettis succumbed to blows a mere 94 seconds into Round
2. Benoit was in real danger up until the finish. Pettis wove
together kicks and punches beautifully, swept his counterpart from
the bottom after being taken down and racked up some points with
his ground-and-pound. Early in the middle stanza, Benoit invited an
exchange on the feet, floored the Milwaukee native with a clean
left hook and then polished off “The Phenom” with winging lefts and
rights. It remains the only knockout loss of Pettis’ 27-fight
career.
3. Home Not-So-Sweet Home
Team Sityodtong product
Rob Font
started to mark his territory as a fully formed contender at 135
pounds when he was awarded a unanimous decision over Pettis in
their UFC on Fox 31 bantamweight showcase on Dec. 15, 2018 at
Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. All three cageside judges struck 30-27
scorecards. Pettis was unsuccessful in his return to the division.
Font punished him with the jab, mixed in well-timed takedowns
paired with ground-and-pound and even threatened him with a kimura
in the second round. At a distinct size and reach disadvantage,
Pettis struggled to close the distance and was met with significant
resistance whenever he moved forward. Font did not endear himself
to a hostile crowd, as he took a hometown hero out behind the
proverbial woodshed.
4. Flow Chart
Pettis could not have made a stronger first impression in his
Bellator MMA debut, as he leveled
Alfred
Khashakyan with punches before choking him unconscious with a
guillotine in the opening round of their featured Bellator 238
attraction on June 25, 2020 at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
The end came 3:00 into Round 1. The two bantamweight hopefuls threw
caution to the wind from the start and chose to trade barbs on the
feet. Pettis staggered on the end of a right hand from the Glendale
Fighting Club rep, then returned fire. The results were immediate.
A savage right hook caught Khashakyan on the jaw, sat him down in
the center of the cage and left him exposed to follow-up attacks.
Pettis pounced with punches, climbed to full mount and unleashed a
hellacious barrage of right hands before biting down in the
guillotine. A visibly compromised Khashakyan had neither the time
nor the wherewithal to employ counter measures and ultimately lost
his grip in reality. It was the sixth of six first-round finishes
on the Pettis resume.
5. Rising to the Occasion
Surgical jabs and beautifully timed counters carried Pettis to a
career-altering unanimous decision over
Juan
Archuleta in the Bellator 258 headliner, where he seized the
undisputed Bellator MMA bantamweight championship on May 7, 2021 at
the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Scores were
50-45, 49-46 and 49-46. Archuleta spent much of the fight playing
into the challenger’s strengths. Pettis turned the Californian’s
aggression against him, snapping back his head with stinging jabs
and sharp counterpunches from both hands. Even when Archuleta
turned to takedowns, he failed to consolidate them with positional
control or ground-and-pound, slowly but surely relinquishing his
claim on the 135-pound throne.