Ex-UFC champ Pettis says success ultimately led to failure

One of the most exciting young fighters in the organization, he became the first UFC fighter to appear on a Wheaties cereal box.

Pettis was the lightweight champion and anticipated keeping the belt for a long time. In fact, he had his entire 2015 planned out after retaining the title with a win over Gilbert Melendez in December 2014.

But the script got torn up before the plot materialized. Pettis was dominated by Rafael dos Anjos for five rounds and lost the belt by unanimous decision in March, then pulled out of a fight in the summer after undergoing elbow surgery.

“It was a tough year,” Pettis said Friday at the UFC Gym downtown. “From being on top of the world beating Melendez, the Wheaties box and then the RDA loss. Trying to bounce back quick, then getting hurt. It was just a rough year. I feel like my whole life I’ve been given trials and had these tough years. I just have to keep getting through and keep pushing.”

He plans to get back on track when he fights Eddie Alvarez on a card Sunday at TD Garden, which will be headlined by a bantamweight title bout between champion T.J. Dillashaw and former champ Dominick Cruz.

Pettis, however, isn’t plotting out much beyond Sunday. He learned that lesson.

He believes one of the reasons he struggled against dos Anjos was because he was thinking too far ahead.

“My mindset was all wrong,” Pettis said. “I was looking past RDA. I had set up the whole year in my mind before that fight. I said I would beat him, then defend the belt again in July, and keep going from there. Just line them all up, you know. I lost track of the one guy in front of me, who was a killer.

“I wasn’t thinking like, ‘I’m the greatest, nobody can touch me,’ but I was definitely thinking ahead. I didn’t focus on that fight. Now I need to take this fight in and focus on winning it. I’m not worried about (Conor) McGregor fighting RDA or fighting the winner or any of that. It’s me and Eddie Alvarez on Sunday. I’ll figure everything else out after that.”

Dos Anjos will defend the belt against McGregor in the main event of UFC 197 on March 5 at the MGM Grand Garden.

Pettis, 28, insists he has blocked out the possibility that a win over Alvarez would earn him a lucrative matchup against the winner of that fight and the potential to reclaim the belt.

He admits, however, that losing the belt has him more determined than ever to get it back.

“It’s my time,” he said. “I’m hungry again, I’m motivated and I want this more than anybody.”

Pettis thinks his errors went beyond overconfidence. He might have been enjoying his success too much, not so much in terms of celebrating but in adding to his staff.

“I know that once I get the belt back, everything’s going to be different,” Pettis said. “I tried to baby myself and hire all these staff members and make it where I didn’t have to do anything but train. But I like having that pressure on myself where I have to be in charge of my weight cut, getting up and training myself and making sure I’m the one responsible for waking up and making sure I bust my butt in the morning.

“Just that mindset of staying hungry and staying motivated.”

His longtime coach sees the difference.

Duke Roufus said Pettis went completely off the grid for several days after losing to dos Anjos, refusing to take calls or return texts or emails.

He emerged with a desire to get back to the top.

“He’s a really smart guy,” Roufus said. “He really learns from his setbacks. A lot of people make excuses or make up weird solutions to a problem they don’t even have. Anthony faces every problem head on, and I think we’ll see the best Anthony Pettis we’ve seen to date. He’s really focused, and he’s got a lot of new tools.”

One of those is a renewed commitment to his wrestling. Pettis made his name as a flashy and dangerous striker, but he has shown passable wrestling skills in bursts.

He employed Ben Askren as his wrestling coach, but Askren is a fighter at the peak of his career, and as good as his wrestling is, Pettis decided to work with Izzy Martinez, known as the boxing coach to champions Holly Holm and Jon Jones, among others.

Pettis said he thinks the evolution in his game will make him even more dangerous.

“He dissected my game and took my strengths and weaknesses and is trying to make me a better wrestler,” Pettis said. “I’m never going to catch up to these guys who wrestled in college and have been doing this their whole lives. That’s not my goal. My goal is to stop them from taking me down and stay off the cage.

“If I can do that, nobody can beat me.”

Alvarez isn’t convinced. The former Bellator MMA champion, who lost his UFC debut to Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone before beating Gilbert Melendez, said he will deliver Pettis’ comeback another setback.

“I’ve been a champion and lost my belt,” Alvarez said. “You do some soul-searching. Typically, you come back stronger, and you bounce back. But regardless of what he did, the preparation, how strong his spirit is, it’s not going to be enough. I want this, man. This has been a life journey for me. He’s told his story, he’s had that belt. His story is over. Everybody knows his story, it’s old. It’s time for me now.”

The card, which also features a heavyweight bout between Matt Mitrione and Travis Browne, will air live on Fox Sports 1 at 7 p.m. Sunday.

— Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamilllvrj.