Sergio Pettis: The Future is Now!
from cagepotatoe
Although you likely haven’t heard the name Sergio Pettis yet, the surname is a familiar one thanks to his older brother Anthony, who introduced the Pettis pedigree to the MMA masses fans with his underdog WEC lightweight championship win over Ben Henderson. His breakout performance was capped off by a highlight reel kick that fans and pundits alike are still talking about.
Sergio is Anthony’s younger brother, who shares not only his older brother’s passion for the sport, but also his innate fighting abilities. Dubbed “Phenom” by his Roufusport teammates, Sergio, who at 17 sports a 4-0 amateur tally, is set to make his professional debut September 9 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada under the Canadian Fighting Championships banner.
He credits Roufusport head Duke Roufus and his brother for helping mould him into the fighter he’s become, but says his goals are simply to keep winning and to hopefully one day follow in Anthony’s footsteps and make it to the UFC. Although that may seem like a lofty aim, for a teenager who abstained from partying and pigging out like most teenagers partake in, in favor of rolling and sparring in the hopes that he would one day reach his goal, it would be more of a surprise to see him not get there.
We spoke with Sergio recently and touched on a number of topics from why he got into fighting to if he ever claimed to be the inventor of the Showtime Kick.
Check out what Sergio had to say below.
Thanks for taking the time to talk today, Sergio.
My pleasure.
How old are you now?
I’m still 17. I turn 18 in August.
So did you have to wait until you turned 18 to turn pro?
My [pro debut] is September 9. I had to wait until I was 18 to fight.
Are you still in school?
I just graduated from high school. I finished in May. Since then I’ve been training pretty much every day two times a day except for Sundays.
You train under Duke Roufus at Roufusport alongside guys like your brother Anthony, Danny Downes, Pat Barry and Eric Schafer. How long have you been there?
I’ve been training there about two years. I started after Anthony, but I wasn’t training there full-time. I jumped in and out when I was younger. I did kickboxing to start. Now I’m training full-time and it’s been about two years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWtt9...layer_embedded
I know your older brothers both started fairly young in Taekwondo and you’re a few years younger than them. Did you do Taekwondo first or did you start training in MMA or kickboxing from the start?
We all started off doing Taekwondo. Our mom got us into it. From there, Anthony advanced to MMA. Seeing him do it, I got interested in it and jumped in as well.
Talking to young fighters early in their careers like Rory MacDonald and Chris Horodecki, they would explain that it took a lot of dedication and self control to go to the gym and train and not go out and party or hang out with their friends doing things like eating junk food and normal things that teenagers do. How did you stay focused and motivated when you had distractions like that?
I was really motivated. I wanted to make sure that I never ruined my chances of achieving this goal. Anthony is pretty much my best friend, so I can hang out with him and have a great time like I would hanging out with my friends. Mostly, staying dedicated to the sport and staying in the gym kept me out of all of the partying and stuff. Having Duke always tell me that I’m going to be great in the future makes me want to make him happy and proud of me and make myself happy and proud of myself. That’s why I stayed in the gym and did what I had to do.
You were featured somewhat in Anthony’s “World of Jenks” episode but we never really got to know much about you from that glimpse, but it seemed like you were observing first hand what Anthony’s experience was like as his popularity rose and he became more and more successful and were making mental notes. Is that when you first started thinking, “Yeah, I could do this for a living?”
For sure. Seeing Anthony be able to do what he loves every day is awesome. I don’t want to be one of these people who are stressed out every day from their jobs. This sport is stressful. It’s nerve-wracking, but I love it. Seeing him do what he does and be happy about it made me want to do that as well.
Something fighters always mention as being a harsh reality of the sport is how when you’re on top everybody loves you and wants to know you, but when you lose, everybody dumps on you or forgets you exist. Has it been tough seeing how fickle people can be?
I see the friends and fans that come when he’s on top. Everybody wants to be a part of it, but you lose that and you lose a lot of them and a lot of fans as well. Everybody loves a winner. I’m learning a lot through Anthony — not only about fighting, but also the marketing and everything else that’s part of being a fighter. I learned a lot about the friend thing. I see it all the time. I think it’s pretty amusing.
During the World of Jenks show, your mom said that she always had a hard time watching Anthony’s fights and that she would get so nervous that she would wait in the back until she knew he won and would watch the replay. You’re the baby of the family. Is she the same way with you?
Actually, I don’t know why, but my mom always tells me that she’s scared watching Anthony’s fights, but for my fights she feels more relaxed watching them. She still has that sense of fear, but she isn’t as nervous watching me fight for whatever reason. I don’t know why that is. I’ll have to talk to her about it. She doesn’t want me to do this sport. She always says, “You’re going to get beat up and your face is going to get all ruined.” But she plays her role and she does it well.
What’s your favorite part of fighting?
My favorite part is before the fight when you’re in the locker room. All the nerves that you feel, it’s kind of like going on your first rollercoaster. There’s so much emotion; I just love that feeling. It’s something different than any other feeling. That’s pretty much my favorite part out there, just waiting in the back.
read the rest
http://www.cagepotato.com/sergio-pet...future-is-now/
