S. Pettis poses next to Bellator president S. Coker Photo: Instagram
Sergio Pettis' first defense of the bantamweight belt (under 61,2kg) took more work than he imagined. In a press conference after the Bellator 272 this Friday (03), the champion admitted that he was 'lost' in the duel against Kyoji Horiguchi and revealed how he tried to remain calm to achieve the knockout.
See too
"I'm broken. During the first three rounds, he was hitting me and leaving me frustrated with very interesting movements and good counterattacks. I had to face a lot of adversity to get that knockout, but it was perfect. It was beautiful”, said Pettis.
The North American acknowledged that it took him a while to find his feet in the fight, but revealed that the round punch that knocked out the challenger came out 'naturally'.
“He has a very strange style that I ended up understanding during the fight. I had to stick to my strategy and my corner kept telling me to stay calm like a ninja and not try to go all out at once. That blow was quite natural, I didn’t put too much force into it and I ended up hitting it perfectly”, revealed the champion.
With five consecutive victories in his career, Pettis crowns the excellent phase he has been going through with retaining the belt. The 28-year-old fighter is now undefeated in four fights for Bellator and has a record of 22 victories and five setbacks.
You need login To comment.