A. Pettis (photo) faces R. dos Anjos on March 14, at UFC 03. Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC
Anthony Pettis He is considered one of the most unpredictable athletes in MMA. Owner of a flashy style and with good resources both on the feet and on the ground, Pettis is coming off his first successful defense of the lightweight belt, against Gilbert Melendez in December last year, and his confidence is high. So high that the champion made a point of belittling the Brazilian Rafael dos Anjos, his next challenger, in a fight to be held next March, guaranteeing that the fight at UFC 185 will not go beyond the first round.
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“I won’t even need five minutes to win Rafael dos Anjos”, said the American, in an interview with the “MMA Fighting” website. “Compared to me, he’s a just decent striker, who doesn’t scare me at all. I say the same about your jiu-jitsu and your wrestling. I think I'm a bad fight for him. Everything he thinks he's good at, I'm much better at. What is certain is that I will finish this fight. It remains to be seen how. My last wins have been submissions, so I'm hungry for a knockout. If he thinks he's going to be able to stand up with me, then I think it's more like a knockout”, he added, even predicting how the duel will end.
The champion continued and, without modesty, said he doubted that Rafael had identified gaps in his game, as the Brazilian said in a recent interview, ensuring that it is very difficult to prepare for a fight against him. “That’s what everyone says. Donald Cerrone, Ben henderson and Gilbert Melendez said the same thing and we all saw how my fights against them ended. I understand and respect that Rafael dos Anjos say that to convince himself that I have holes in my game, but I don't know which of my fights he watched to come to that conclusion, besides the one against Clay guida, and the problems I presented in that fight I fixed a long time ago. To be honest, I think it's very difficult for anyone to be able to prepare to fight me. If I were to fight myself, I wouldn't know which fight to watch to study my game. I didn't have any errors or problems in my last fights. If he thinks I have holes in my game, he will end up finding out the hard way that this is not true”, he assured.
The conviction of Anthony Pettis will be put to the test on March 14th, in Dallas (USA), when the lightweight champion puts his belt on the line against the Brazilian Rafael dos Anjos in the main fight of UFC 185. At 27 years old, Pettis has a professional record of 18 wins and just two losses. Rafael, on the other hand, has 23 wins and seven losses.
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