At 155 pounds, 5 feet 10 inches, and with a 72-inch reach, Pettis competes in World Extreme Cagefighting, a sibling of the popular UFC circuit. In April, he made his national debut on Spike TV.
My dad was my hero. He wasn’t always there – he lived the street life – but when he was, he was a great dad. When he got older, he kind of realized it was time to focus on his family. He died in a house robbery in 2003, in the wrong place at the wrong time. Right across the street from our house. He got stabbed twice in the chest. I was 16.
My mom raised us, three boys. She was really good, the strictest mom ever: 8 o’clock in bed. In college, a single mom, she needed something for us to do after school, so she put us in martial arts. Now, my mom doesn’t watch my fights. She can’t look at them.
I’ve been doing it since I was 5, 18 years ago. If I wasn’t, I would have a lot of aggression and anger, because I’ve been through a lot of shit in my life. This relieves me. It’s a tactical way of putting all my energy to use.
MMA is just like boxing. It’s just we get to do more things. There’s kicking and punching and everything. You get a lot of injuries. I got two surgeries in one year; one on my hand, one on my shoulder.
I’m a flashy fighter. People know when they see my fights, they’re going to see something crazy. I like moves that make the audience go “Ohh!” When I hear that, that’s the best feeling in the world. That’s what I feed off.
I come from a taekwondo and boxing base, so you see a lot of big kicks, a lot of big punches. But you can only get so far on athleticism and being explosive. I’m trying to become a smart fighter. It’s really a chess match. You do this, I do this, to be two steps ahead of you.
The best moment in my career would have to be when I won the Gladiators Fighting title. The guy I fought was on the “TapouT” TV show. I saw him on TV, and a year later, I’m fighting him. It was surreal.
– as told to Thomas Cullen
