About Anthony Pettis
Adaptable Anthony Pettis is an American professional mixed martial artist. His grandfather, born Perez, changed his family name to Pettis so he and his other family members could avoid discrimination. In MMA, Pettis is known for his smooth and technical fighting style, as well as his athletic feats and wide range of techniques. He currently fights in the Welterweight and Lightweight divisions for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He began his World Extreme Cagefighting career in 2009 and joined the UFC in 2010 with the WEC/UFC merger. For much of his career, he was ranked as a Top Ten pound-for-pound fighter, but lost that status in 2017 after four successive losses. As of his 2020 records, he has compiled a total of 22 wins - 11 by knockout, 7 by submission, and 4 via unanimous decision. As recent news, after fulfilling the final bout on his most recent contract at UFC Vegas 17, former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis is open to all options on his fighting future. As of November 16, 2020, he is #12 in the UFC welterweight rankings.
Famous For
- Being an American professional mixed martial artist.
- For his smooth and technical fighting style, as well as his athletic feats and wide range of techniques.
Source: @mmafighting
Early Life of Anthony Pettis
On 27th January 1987, Anthony Pettis took birth with the real name or full name Anthony Paul Pettis in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. He holds an American nationality and Hispanic ethnicity. He has Puerto Rican and Mexican ancestry. Analogously, he is from Christianity religion and his race is white. He happily celebrates his birthday on 27th January of every year and he has celebrated his 33rd birthday as of 2020 though as his birthdate, his star sign is Aquarius. He was born to Annette (mother) and Eugene Pettis Jr (father). Sadly, his father was stabbed to death by a robber at a friend's house on 12th November 2003. He grew up in the south side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, along with his older brother, Reynaldo Pettis, and younger brother, Sergio Pettis, who fights in the flyweight division. Concerning his education, he attended Dominican High School. During his early years, he started training taekwondo and boxing at the age of 5. In college, he also started wrestling. When he went to train in mixed martial arts at Roufusport at the age of 18, he had already a 3rd-degree black belt in taekwondo. He later trained in capoeira.
Career of Anthony Pettis
- Anthony Pettis jumps off his MMA career in December 2007 by compiling a record of 8-0 in all fights being held by Adam Sandoval and Duke Roufus before debuting with the World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) though his last fight before joining the WEC was a short notice welterweight bout.
- He went to "The Ultimate Fighter: United States vs. United Kingdom" tryouts but didn't make it to the show before joining the WEC.
- He was expected to make his promotional debut against Anthony Njokuani on 5th April 2009, at WEC 40 but he pulled out of the fight with a hand injury and was replaced by Bart Palaszewski.
- He then made his WEC debut at WEC 41, where he defeated Mike Campbell via first-round triangle choke and was expected to fight Rob McCullough at WEC 44 on 18th November but was pulled off the card with an undisclosed injury as he suffered his first professional loss on 19th December 2009 at WEC 45, dropping a split decision to Bart Palaszewski.
- After that, he rebounded from the loss with a head-kick KO victory over Danny Castillo on 6th March 2010 at WEC 47, earning "Knockout of the Night honors".
- He suffered almost no damage in the bout with Castillo and made a quick return at WEC 48 against Alex Karalexis and won the fight via submission in the second round and also faced Shane Roller on 18th August 2010 at WEC 50.
- Pettis finally secured a fight-ending triangle choke in the closing seconds of the fight, earning a "Submission of the Night" bonus after several submission attempts as his last WEC fight came against Benson Henderson on 16th December 2010 at WEC 53 for the WEC Lightweight Championship and won the fight via unanimous decision (48-47, 49-46, 48-47) to become the final WEC Lightweight Champion.
- He was expected to face the winner of Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, which took place at UFC 125, and the bout was declared a draw, and Edgar–Maynard 3 was scheduled for UFC 130, but both fighters sustained injuries before the fight, which was postponed.
- After that, he faced Clay Guida on 4th June 2011 at The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale as well as defeated Jeremy Stephens via split decision on 8th October of the following year at UFC 136 in a closely contested bout.
- On 25th February 2012, he won the fight via first-round KO against Joe Lauzon, and also won the fight by TKO in the first round against Donald Cerrone.
- It was announced on 12th July 2013 that Pettis would receive a UFC lightweight title shot as he replaced an injured TJ Grant against Benson Henderson on 31st August at UFC 164 where Henderson was defeated by Pettis via unanimous decision.
- Pettis was expected to make his first title defense against TJ Grant on 14th December 2013 at UFC on Fox 9 but Grant revealed in mid-September that he had yet to be medically cleared after suffering a concussion in training and would not be eligible to compete on 14th December.
- As well, he was selected to serve as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter 20, opposite Gilbert Melendez and the two would face each other at UFC 181 on 6th December 2014 as he won the fight via guillotine choke in the second round, becoming the first man to finish Melendez.
- He was defeated by Rafael dos Anjos on 14th March 2015 at UFC 185 as well as lost the fight by split decision against Eddie Alvarez on 17th January 2016, at UFC Fight Night 81.
- Pettis faced Edson Barboza on 23rd April 2016, at UFC 197 where he was defeated though he won the fight via guillotine choke in the 3rd round against Charles Oliveira in his featherweight debut on 27th August 2016, at UFC on Fox 21.
- He faced Max Holloway for the interim UFC Featherweight Championship on 10th December 2016, at UFC 206 but lost the fight via TKO in the third round whereas he is the first fighter to miss weight for a UFC championship bout since Travis Lutter at UFC 67 in February 2007.
- He then faced Jim Miller in a lightweight bout on 8th July 2017, at UFC 213, and won the fight by unanimous decision although he got defeated by Dustin Poirier on 11th November 2017, at UFC Fight Night 120.
- Also, he was expected to face Michael Chiesa on 7th April 2018, at UFC 223, but the bout was canceled two days before the event after Chiesa was injured in an incident in which Conor McGregor hurled a dolly through the window of the bus Chiesa was in. Whereas, he later defeated Chiesa by fight via triangle armbar submission in the second round.
- But, he was defeated by Tony Ferguson on 6th October 2018, at UFC 229 though it was announced on 19th January 2019 that Pettis would be returning to Welterweight for the first time since 2008 to face Stephen Thompson in which fight served as the headliner of UFC on ESPN+ 6 on 23rd March 2019. He won the fight via knockout in the second round, becoming the first man to knock out Thompson in his entire MMA and kickboxing career.
- He was also defeated by Nate Diaz on 17th August 2019 at UFC 241
- In 2020, he has been defeated by Carlos Diego Ferreira in a lightweight bout on 18th January at UFC 246 as he faced Donald Cerrone in a rematch on 9th May 2020 at UFC 249 and won the fight via unanimous decision.
- He then defeated Alex Morono at UFC Fight Night: Thompson vs. Neal on 19th December 2020.
- Furthermore, as a piece of recent news, after fulfilling the final bout on his most recent contract at UFC Vegas 17, former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis is open to all options on his fighting future.
- "I'm going to take the holiday off, honestly," Pettis told ESPN. "That was the last fight on my UFC contract, and I don't know what's going to happen. I'm open to see what they come back at me at.
- "My little brother's outside of the UFC now, and it's one of those things like I'm not attached to anything anymore. I'm taking one fight at a time. My goal is to be the best version of myself. Obviously, the UFC is where the best guys are at, so I would love to fight in this organization still. But we'll see what happens. Contracts negotiations are something that happens outside of my world. I still have an agent to take care of that."
Television Career
- Anthony Pettis starred in episode 4 of "World of Jenks", where documentary maker Andrew Jenks lived with Pettis for a week before his fight against Danny Castillo at WEC 47 which also gave an inside look into Pettis' fight preparations as well as giving insights into his family life.
Awards and Achievements of Anthony Pettis
Ultimate Fighting Championship
- UFC Lightweight Championship (One time)
- One successful title defense
- Fight of the Night (Two times) vs. Dustin Poirier and Tony Ferguson
World Extreme Cagefighting
- WEC Lightweight Championship (One time; last)
- Knockout of the Night (One time) vs. Danny Castillo
Gladiators Fighting Series
- GFS Lightweight Championship (One time)
- One successful title defense
FIGHT! Magazine
- 2010 Newcomer of the Year
Inside MMA
- 2013 Male Fighter of the Year Bazzie Award
MMAFighting.com
- 2010 Fight of the Year vs. Benson Henderson on December 16
Sherdog
- 2010 Breakthrough Fighter of the Year
USA Today
- 2010 Fight of the Year vs. Benson Henderson on December 16
MMAJunkie.com
- 2019 March Knockout of the Month vs. Stephen Thompson
World MMA Awards
- 2018 Fight of the Year vs. Tony Ferguson
Personal Life of Anthony Pettis
Reflecting on Anthony Pettis's personal life, he is an unmarried guy. Whereas regarding his dating life, he is in a romantic relationship with his girlfriend Lisette Gadzuric. Pettis, proposed to his girlfriend, Gadzuric while vacationing in Aruba and they are in a relationship for a very long time. He has not however spoken very daringly and openly about his relationship, but he definitely shows his affection whenever the two are together. Furthermore, talking about his sexual orientation, he is straight.
Source: @liverampup
Net Worth of Anthony Pettis
Moving towards Anthony Pettis's net worth, he has a worth of around $3 million as of 2020 though he has also a handsome amount of salary too which is also in millions of dollars per year. Pettis owns the Roufusport MMA Academy and the Showtime Sports Bar in Milwaukee along with business partners Duke Roufus and Scott Joffe. As well, he along with Jon Jones, Urijah Faber, Joseph Benavidez, Mark Munoz, Chad Mendes, and Scott Jorgensen starred in Form Athletics (now owned by K-Swiss) commercial though it was also announced that Pettis signed a sponsorship deal with Reebok on 30th June 2014. Pettis was voted to be the first UFC champion to appear on the cover of General Mills' Wheaties box wearing his belt in the fall of 2014. In addition, his major source of income is from his MMA career.
Body Measurement of Anthony Pettis
The height of handsome and adaptable MMA fighter, Anthony Pettis is around 5 ft 10 in or 178 cm whereas his body weight is around 77 kg or 170 lbs. He has maintained his shape over the years with regular exercise it seems. Blessed with great height and physique, he still carries the aura to rock the shirtless avatar. His bearded jaw and thick eyebrows have attracted a lot of people towards him. Graceful guy Pettis has black hair and dark brown eyes color as his body build type is athletic. He has inked several tattoos on his body.
