FightPost MMA Fighter of the Week: Anthony ‘Showtime’ Pettis
By Kieran Cobley
Anthony Pettis (22-8) takes this week’s Fighter of the Week honours following his spectacular second round KO over Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson (14-4-1) at UFC Nashville in his welterweight debut.
Pettis went into the fight with “Wonderboy” as a 3/1 underdog, with many fans and pundits theorising that he wouldn’t be able to get round Thompson’s rangey Karate-style striking to inflict any of his own offence. This is also Pettis’ first fight back since his loss to Tony Ferguson at UFC 229 in their stunning fight, where Pettis sustained a broken hand.
The first round saw a very even match of striking, with both men going forward with combos and finding some success, landing kicks and punches.
Both men looked to be effective off countering their opponents kicks, coming over the top with punches as soon as their opponent placed their foot back on the floor.
The second round was almost completely the same, with Pettis utilising his counter striking to land the winning blow.
As Thompson came forward with a lead leg side kick, Pettis parried it, and landed a superb superman punch, KOing Thompson, before following it up with a thundering punch to the grounded Wonderboy.
This is yet another highlight reel finish for ‘Showtime’, pairing nicely with his famous ‘Showtime’ kick.
Pettis has a variety of options for his next fight. If he chooses to stay at welterweight, he could very well get into the title picture with fights against Darren Till, Robbie Lawler and Ben Askren, with all three fights being potential Fight of the Year candidates.
On the other hand, Pettis could stay at lightweight. Although Pettis is one of the most talented individuals in the lightweight division with fantastic Taekwondo and grappling skills, he won’t get into title contention anytime soon with all the interim title drama, plus the fact that their seems to be a game of politics going on between UFC president Dana White versus Khabib Nurmagomedov and his manager Ali Abdelaziz versus Conor McGregor.
Staying at lightweight does leave the possibility of mouth-watering fights against Justin Gaethje and Edson Barboza on the table though, which would again be Fight of the Year contenders.
Honourable mention this week goes to Emmanuel Sanchez who beat short notice replacement Georgi Karakhanyan at Bellator 218 by unanimous decision.
FightPost: Boxing & MMA News 