Originally published at Former UFC champion Anthony Pettis to explore free agency
Days after his victory against Alex Morono, former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis has stated he will explore free agency and has issued a statement thanking the UFC.
Pettis, who turns 34 years old next month, has competed for the WEC/UFC since 2009 and won the 155-pound championship in both organizations.
Pettis delivered one of the greatest highlights of all-time in December 2010 on the final WEC event when he landed the “Showtime kick” onto Benson Henderson before going on to win the fight by decision and becoming the promotion’s final lightweight champion.
After dropping his first fight in the UFC to Clay Guida, he rebounded and won his next three fights before replacing T.J. Grant at UFC 164 where he defeated Henderson again to become UFC lightweight champion in August 2013.
Pettis dropped the title in March 2015 to Rafael dos Anjos and struggled to stay in the win column after that loss. Since the fight with RDA, he has gone 6-7 while competing at featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight over the past six years.
This past year he returned to welterweight and has enjoyed back-to-back decision victories against Donald Cerrone and Alex Morono in 2020.
Pettis holds a professional record of 24-10 and has been fighting for almost fourteen years.
After announcing he would explore free agency, he issued the following letter thanking the UFC:
Thank you @ufc @danawhite 🙏👊🤝 pic.twitter.com/pJtBo2Hpxc
— Anthony Pettis (@Showtimepettis) December 23, 2020