"My coach just confirmed with me yesterday that I'm fighting Alex Karalexis on September 2nd."
My article on the hard-to-dislike Pettis will be in the next issue of Full Contact Fighter. It's also right here:
Anthony Pettis: From Hard Times to “Showtime”
by Matt Kaplan
Things are good for Anthony “Showtime” Pettis these days. The 22-year-old lightweight is 7-0, a standout pupil of kickboxing legend Duke Roufus, and in the midst of a five-fight deal with the WEC. Pettis’ best days are undoubtedly ahead of him, and in a way, he has his worst days to thank for it.
Pettis grew up in a dangerous part of Milwaukee, and fighting - in its many forms - was something he was born into. Pettis’ father, Eugene Pettis, boxed as a younger man, but, as Pettis explains, “the street life pulled him away from ever really getting anywhere with boxing.”
It was the same street life that ultimately defined Eugene Pettis; he was part of a gang and was renowned as a fierce local street fighter, but to Anthony, he was just dad: “My dad was a cool guy, down-to-earth guy, a really funny guy. He was really easy to get along with, and if you didn’t disrespect him, he didn’t disrespect you. He carried a lot of respect in Milwaukee.”
For his son, though, Eugene Pettis wanted more than what street life could offer. He moved away from his gang affiliations and worked two jobs so that Anthony and his brothers could receive a Catholic-school education and taekwondo instruction. Eugene worked to clean up his life - he fittingly took a job as a janitor - and keep his family away from violence and crime, something he himself could not escape.
On November 12, 2003, Eugene was visiting a friend when the friend’s house was broken into, and Eugene was stabbed three times in the chest. Eugene, 46, died across the street from his home. The man who gave Anthony his fighting spirit - and whose image is now tattooed on Anthony’s left shoulder - was gone, and the 16-year-old was sent into a tailspin of anger, disbelief, and confusion.
“Once I lost my pops, nothing else mattered. My mom did her best to keep me in line, but I was walking the edge. I was just going through the motions of life for the next year or two, and I was still in high school. When you’re in high school, you’re still finding out who you are and who you want to be, but when he died, it was hard for me to even finish school and figure out what I was going to do with myself. I was just thinking, ‘Why me?’”
Anthony had been involved with competitive taekwondo and boxing since boyhood, but when but when his father died, Pettis walked away from fighting. But he couldn’t stay away for too long.
“I was kind of a lost cause for a bit there when I lost my pops, and fighting was the way out,” says Pettis, who eventually took a job teaching taekwondo at his brother’s gym in Pleasant Springs, WI. “When I started teaching taekwondo again, part of me wanted to be a world champ.”
Pettis had always admired MMA competition and liked his chances at success as a mixed martial artist. With a redoubled effort to competitive martial arts, he looked up a couple of gyms in Milwaukee and enrolled in Duke Roufus’ academy in November, 2007.
On January 27, 2007, Pettis turned twenty and made his amateur MMA debut, which he won in 24 seconds in dominant fashion. It was after his third and final amateur fight when Anthony Pettis officially became “Showtime.”
“I didn’t have a nickname at the time, and Duke said, ‘Man, you put on a show every time you fight. I’m going to call you ‘Showtime.’ My style is flashy, so every time I fight, it’ll be worth watching; everybody wants to see the big knockout or the cool submission.”
Pettis made his pro debut on December 1, 2007, with the Wisconsin-based Gladiators Cage Fighting promotion and certainly lived up to his “Showtime” moniker. Pettis’ March 29, 2008 fight against Mike Lambrecht is perhaps his most spectacular, and in a way, it demonstrates the kind of fighter and young man Pettis has become.
After unleashing a dazzling array of punches and knees, Pettis was slammed to the ground by Lambrecht and suffered a dislocated right shoulder. A fatigued, badly hurt Pettis got to his feet seconds later, his right arm dangling by his side. With less than a minute left in Round One, Pettis landed a head kick that dropped the hard-charging Lambrecht, ended the fight, and electrified the crowd.
Pettis had been down and he had been hurt, but he invoked the warrior spirit of his late father to forge ahead and be the last man standing. In the face of adversity, he did the one thing he’d been doing his whole life: he fought.
Three months later, Pettis earned a split decision victory over Sherron Leggett to become the GCF 155-lb. champion, a title he successfully defended against Jay Ellis and Gabe Wallbridge; he finished them both with lightning strikes and a street fighter’s fury. Under the GCF banner, Pettis was 6-0, finishing 5 of his opponents in the first round with strikes. But for the young champion, the best was yet to come.
“I was on vacation in Cancun, Mexico, in January (2008). I was supposed to be there for two weeks, and on my second day down there, (Duke Roufus) called and said, ‘Are you sitting down? I just got word that you got a five-fight contract with the WEC.’ So I cut my vacation short to get ready for my (first WEC) fight.”
Pettis was scheduled to make his WEC debut at WEC 40 in Chicago against Anthony Njokuani on April 5, but a broken hand suffered during training forced Pettis out of that fight just days before the event. In June, a healthy Pettis climbed into the cage against former welterweight Mike Campbell at WEC 41 and against his biggest, strongest opponent to date, showed the MMA world what kind of show they can expect from the skinny Milwaukee native.
“I knew that Mike Campbell came from a great camp, from Mark DellaGrotte, so I knew he was going to be a good striker. My plan was pretty much to finish the fight whenever I felt it was time to go.” And that’s exactly what Pettis did.
The opening bell sounded, and Pettis threw a vicious right leg that Campbell caught. Campbell hoisted the smaller Pettis into the air, and Pettis seamlessly switched to an arm-in guillotine as he was being slammed down. From his back, Pettis fought off Campbell’s relentless ground strikes, got the Boston native in his guard, and locked in a tight triangle choke. Campbell held on for what seemed like an eternity to Pettis, but tapped 1:49 into Round One.
On the biggest stage of his career and against his toughest opponent, Pettis unveiled a submission game that looks to be as dangerous and as exciting as his striking and one again fought with the fire and intensity of a certain Milwaukee street fighter.
Up next for Pettis is his second WEC match in September. When FCF spoke with Pettis, he and Duke were still working on finalizing an opponent, but according to Pettis, whomever he faces next will have to deal with an entirely new Showtime.
“It’s going to be a whole different fight. I only had 1:49 (against Campbell) to show the world what I can do, but hopefully I’ll have more time to show my fighting style. My style is flashy; you can expect a show no matter what.”
For Pettis, the motivation behind his intense training and crowd-pleasing style is neither the money nor the fame. It’s his family. He is the role model he set out to be for his brother, and he is working to get a new house for his mother. Pettis, once lost after the unsolved murder of his beloved father, is living his life “the right way. He is doing it all by doing what comes most naturally to him: fighting. After all, he is Eugene Pettis’ son.
(photo from Anthony Pettis)
r.i.p. karalexis...pettis is too fast
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