5 Things You Might Not Know About Sergio Pettis

Sergio Pettis now bears the bullseye.

The Roufusport star will defend his undisputed Bellator MMA bantamweight championship in one of the month’s most anticipated battles, as he faces Kyoji Horiguchi in the Bellator 272 main event on Friday at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Pettis, 38, steps into the cage on a four-fight winning streak. He last appeared at Bellator 258, where he dethroned Juan Archuleta in a five-round unanimous decision on May 7 and laid claim to the promotion’s 135-pound throne.

As Pettis approaches his first title defense against Horiguchi, here are five things you might not know about him:

1. He chose to forego the typical grace period.

Pettis made his professional mixed martial arts debut less than a month after he turned 18, as he brought down Kyle Vivian with a first-round head kick at a Canadian Fighting Championship event on Sept. 10, 2011. He went on to fight eight times as a teenager, going a perfect 8-0 in those bouts.

2. A championship pedigree was established in his formative years.

The Roufusport product captured multiple titles on the regional scene. He laid claim to the inaugural Resurrection Fighting Alliance flyweight championship when he put away Dillard Pegg with punches 51 seconds into their RFA 8 main event on June 21, 2013 and took home the North American Fighting Championship bantamweight crown when he submitted James Porter with a kimura 2:33 into their NAFC “Battle in the Ballroom” headliner on Sept. 28, 2013.

3. He rarely gets in a rush.

Despite his proclivity for explosive offense, Pettis prefers to takes a more measured approach than some might expect. Seventeen of his 26 fights (65%)—14 of his 21 wins and three of his five losses—have gone the distance. He has completed five rounds on two different occasions: in the aforementioned victory over Archuleta and in his five-round unanimous decision over current Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight titleholder Brandon Moreno at UFC Fight Night 114 in August 2017.

4. He keeps exclusive company.

Pettis owns the distinction as one of only eight men to hold the Bellator bantamweight championship. Archuleta, Horiguchi, Eduardo Dantas (twice), Darrion Caldwell, Marcos Galvao, Joe Warren and Zach Makovsky. Dantas holds the record for the longest single reign at 911 days.

5. His well-rounded skills are finely tuned.

“The Phenom” holds the rank of black belt in taekwondo and Brazilian jiu-jistu. Pettis has spent years under the tutelage of four-time kickboxing world champion Duke Roufus and sharpened his grappling under the watch of Daniel Wanderley.