Anthony Pettis was on top of the world in 2013. He won the UFC lightweight title over Benson Henderson. And in addition to gold around his waist, he earned himself a spot on a Wheaties cereal box.
Then he fought Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 185 in 2015. It was — frankly — a humiliating loss. Pettis didn’t lose by submission or knockout, but he was pressured to the point of being completely neutralized.
He admitted as much to Ariel Helwani (via ESPN).
“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.”
Pettis would go on to lose his next two fights: first to Eddie Alvarez in a fairly competitive affair, then to Edson Barboza in a much less competitive affair.
Pettis explained the “mental block” he couldn’t get past.
”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.”
Pettis is 3-2 in his last five, with wins over Charles Oliveira, Jim Miller, and Michael Chiesa. He lost to two elite fighters in Dustin Poirier and Max Holloway (which he was ineligible to win interim featherweight gold for after missing weight).
Whether Pettis was doomed by a lack of belief, or simply a step up in competition is another matter, but there’s no denying his raw talent. He’s scheduled to fight at UFC 229 on October 6th vs. Tony Ferguson, whom he feels will bring out the best in him.
“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.”
He’s definitely right about the matchup of styles. I don’t know that a “mental block” is enough to overcome to pace and durability gap between the two, but Pettis is talented enough to make some noise if he’s truly past any mental demons that might have hampered Finalizehim over the last three years.