Anthony Pettis: How far does talent go?
Photo By Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images
In MMA there are many forms of talent, and to varying degrees. For every Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, we have a Jeremy Stephens, no fighter is as equally talented or gifted in the same way as the rest, but through training and learning, they mold their techniques to accentuate their strengths. That is, of course, if they have done their due diligence and built a style that truly utilizes their gifts.
For Anthony “Showtime” Pettis, talent came in the form of incredible speed and durability. However, his game has not shaped out to fully emphasize these gifts, and at the current age of 32, there isn't much of that talent left to spend. I'm going to discuss what made Anthony Pettis so special at his peak, and what technical failures and stylistic choices lead him to have a mediocre career relative to his potential.
WEC Prospect
In 2009, Pettis made his WEC debut against Mike Campbell, it was a quick affair with Campbell rushing in for a takedown and subsequently spending his time attempting to pass Pettis' guard and avoiding submission attempts.
Within the first round, Pettis would easily submit Campbell with a triangle choke. Pettis showed confidence in his submission attempts and made it incredibly difficult for the average fighter to pass and control him in his guard. While this was a good debut for the young fighter, it was worrying just how much he relied on his aggressive guard game to survive.
Pettis' second WEC fight would turn out to be a surprising loss against Bart Palazewski, and for Pettis, this was a telling loss. To start, Pettis lacked a foundational stance which meant that Pettis would either be running and throwing punches and kicks, or circling out, hands down.
Pettis looked like a fighter that had plenty of single techniques that he had not yet strung together. For a fighter that showed ridiculous kick speed, Pettis' footwork was either constantly squared and circling or it was lead leg heavy. This left Palazewski room to low kick away, and Pettis would need to spend an extra half second to bring his leg up to check kicks.
So much of this fight would serve to be a lower-level representation of all of Pettis' losses, with Palazewski following Pettis onto the fence and chasing him down with punches into kick combinations. By driving the pace up and maintaining pressure on Pettis, Palazewski could secure takedowns when Pettis got frustrated. He cruised to a split decision with consistent attacks on the single-shot Pettis.
From these two fights, Pettis showed a lack of urgency to stand up after failing to make submissions happen. Furthermore, his footwork was severely lacking in that he could not bring himself into punching range, choosing to hop into 1-2s and throw lone head kicks. It wasn’t a career-destroying performance, but it highlighted issues in the young prospect’s game.
The WEC Championship
After the disappointing loss to Palazewski, Pettis rebounded against Danny Castillo, the main victim on every UFC lightweight’s highlight reel. For Pettis, it was a fight to test his relevance and to see if the prospect can improve after an unremarkable loss. Pettis came into this fight with far more confidence in his stance and standing with his opponent. It didn’t help that Castillo had no real method to pressure forward or any inclination, so Pettis was free to bounce around and pick at Castillo with 1-2s.
With Castillo easily biting on his 1-2s and running back, Pettis quickly threw up a high kick following his right hand and caved Castillo’s head in with a left round kick.
It wasn’t a brilliant strategy, and Pettis was also taken down briefly, but it reminded people that if Pettis has his range and is free to strike, he can knock out just about anyone. Pettis would begin to find comfort in his style against fighters like Shane Roller and Alex Karalexis, they gave him the space to pick at them. Pettis also spent less time circling, as if he had been told to stand his ground more often, he threw 1-2s and could keep his opponent from putting his back on the fence.
By being more aggressive in the pocket and winging punches in return, Pettis could back up his opponents, giving him opportunities to throw his kicks. His quick kicks would force his opponents to charge for a takedown in open space, leading to Pettis’ submissions.
With these wins, Pettis gained more confidence in trading punches with his opponents. His footwork was becoming more Taekwondo, with the consistent hopping and retreating on a single line. While Pettis rarely feinted his strikes, the hopping rhythm gave him the chambering to explode into his strikes. It also gave Pettis a sense of space to reset for his 1-2s, as well as the space to circle out and quickly throw out kicks. For the fighters at the time, it worked wonders as they would panic in the face of quick 1-2s and lightning quick power kicking. This ultimately would net Pettis a chance to fight for the WEC championship against Benson Henderson.
The fight against Henderson was another growth in confidence for Pettis in which he showed more willingness to come forward, push Henderson around, and throw in combination. Gone were the sprinting 1-2s, in place was bouncing footwork and feints from his rear-leg to lull Henderson complacent, followed by a quick combination.
Pettis was not a pressure fighter by any means, but he understood that by pushing forward and keeping his opponent in the center of the cage, he had the highest chances of landing his kicks without being taken down.
But for Henderson, it was a strange performance as he mostly backed up away from Pettis, looking to counter-punch and pull Pettis to the cage for takedowns. We quickly learned that on top of speed, Pettis has a tremendous chin, which he leveraged in every exchange with Henderson, hurting him several times.
Henderson, as a result, would either be out-pointed at range or forced to dive for open space takedowns that were mostly unsuccessful against a sprawling Pettis.
Henderson’s biggest success would be against the cage, like most Pettis opponents. Once Pettis is against the cage, taking him down becomes far easier. Furthermore, Henderson denied Pettis his submissions by driving him into the cage and rarely framing off. This denied Pettis the openings he desperately needs to generate scrambles to get up or to submit.
Regardless, Henderson did his best to keep Pettis grounded but would surrender the WEC lightweight crown to “Showtime”. It was a great performance for Pettis as he showed a willingness to trade and Henderson had nothing to trade back with him.
Early UFC Run
His first UFC fight should have been a wakeup call. Pettis lost a shockingly bad decision to Clay Guida. It was a fight that puzzled many initially, but it wasn’t that far off from how he’d struggled to this point, and of course it makes sense in hindsight, given Pettis’ later losses. Against Guida, Pettis seemed to forget all the lessons he had learned prior. He threw kicks in empty spaces which got him taken down. He stood still while bouncing, which gave him zero stability when Guida shot in.
The lapse in judgment and placement in the cage cost Pettis a decision loss, not the way he wanted to start his UFC run. It also reminded us that Pettis can often forget his place in the cage, once a fighter pushes their way past his straight punching and wild hooks.
In later fight against Jeremy Stephens, Pettis would improve his grappling and easily outwrestle the harder hitting fighter. But it was his next fights against Joe Lauzon and Donald Cerrone, that attracted my attention and excitement for Pettis as a fighter. Against both fighters, Pettis was more careful with his trades and would often bounce into three and four punch combinations.
Pettis also added a low-line side kick to slow his opponent’s pressure. This also kept the idea of a low kick in their minds, and it gave Pettis the opportunity to land his harder kicks to the body and the head later on.
It was a far more interesting look for Pettis and it was clear he understood that an opponent coming forward could be an opening for his blitz combinations. Pettis was learning to be more conservative with his offense and make his attacks meaningful, which in turn netted him two finishes. Had Pettis continued with this concept, he could have matured into a fighter that presented the division many issues for years to come. However, as we would learn later, Pettis would never truly understand his gifts and would work himself in the wrong direction.
Dos Anjos
In a fight that would essentially end Pettis’ run as a top, elite competitor, Rafael dos Anjos crafted the perfect gameplan to smash Pettis. By this point, Pettis had submitted Benson Henderson in a rematch for the title and finished Gilbert Melendez by submission as well. Both fighters once again gave Pettis too much space, were too reckless in their pressure and lacked the persistence to keep Pettis on the fence. Dos Anjos, however, would put on a career-best performance by utterly shutting Pettis down.
Right from the start, dos Anjos began to walk Pettis down against the fence, but instead of rushing for takedowns, he began to feint and throw quick punches to encourage Pettis to throw back. This built directly off the issues Pettis experienced against Melendez.
Pettis, for all his improvements, never got comfortable with throwing power hooks or even punches to the body, leaving his arsenal stocked purely with straight punches. Dos Anjos quickly disarmed him by bringing his chin down, rear hand up by his forehead, and his lead arm covering the entirety of his chin. This left Pettis’ punches bouncing off his guard and ineffective.
Because dos Anjos kept Pettis on the fence and under fire, Pettis could not throw out his famed kicks and was stuck attempting to trade punches with a man who had a far better defense. Dos Anjos would rip the body and come up the top, kick and enter back in the space, countering Pettis’ better strikes.
On top of being outstruck, whenever dos Anjos felt like Pettis was forgetting about wrestling and his hips were squared, he would shoot for a takedown.
Dos Anjos would also keep Pettis against the fence, grinding the back of Pettis’ head against the cage, which gave dos Anjos the opportunity to go for ground and pound. Furthermore, dos Anjos constantly denied Pettis grips on an arm and would control his legs when passing to reduce the risk of a submission.
Pettis would go on to lose the belt in a five-round beating and his glaring weaknesses were blown up for the world to see.
Modern Pettis
After the dos Anjos loss, Pettis would go on to lose two more fights against Eddie Alvarez and Edson Barboza. While they were not complete blowouts, Pettis looked limited after being outwrestled by Alvarez (one of Pettis’ better performances even still) and shut out by Barboza. Pettis would also try to move down to featherweight trading a win and a loss against Charles Oliveira and Max Holloway.
By the time he fought Holloway, some parts of his style had changed, but potentially only because Pettis’ once lightning-quick speed had started to fade out. Against Holloway, he showed an interesting new wrinkle in his game by adding a rear snap kick and front snap kick to supplement the forward movement. He even used these tools to fluster and stun Michael Chiesa.
But ultimately, Pettis has deteriorated and no longer possesses the same blitzing speed he had before, in place now is a cover-up plod forward kickboxer who still can’t punch well beyond straights. Furthermore, Pettis still runs into the issue of being cowed into the fence, Tony Ferguson, Nate Diaz, and Dustin Poirier reused the same gameplan.
So what happens to Pettis now? Most likely, he’ll exchange more wins and losses against weaker and weaker competition. His move to welterweight and back down to lightweight shows that he’s looking for a quick fix, rather than assessing his glaring footwork flaw. With so much of his natural talent depreciated, it’s hard to see Pettis as a world beater these days and furthermore, it’s hard to see him grow after spending over a decade with the exact same issue.
Conclusion
What made Anthony Pettis special were his natural gifts of both speed and durability. He could explode with a lightning fast kick and throw up a submission in the blink of an eye. But as time went on, he never addressed the limiting issues in his game which were the footwork, predictable punching, and porous wrestling defense.
There isn’t much left for me to say than what I expected Pettis to become. I believed he would have become a thoughtful mid-range kickboxer, had he developed the footwork to keep himself safe. The blitzing combinations and fast kicks where signs of a truly special kickboxer, but instead Pettis’ chin has carried him through his last few fights in where most fighters would have been knocked flat out.
Pettis will likely be fighting for another few years, but even then I don’t see him finding much success against the upper echelon of the lightweight division which is a shame as he was considered one of the brightest talents in MMA. Without a doubt I will still hope that Pettis might find his path again, but perhaps it might be time to close to the curtains on “Showtime”.