Anthony Pettis: Analyzing the Mental Road Toward a Comeback

This isn't the first time Anthony Pettis has lost. He does have two losses under his belt, so he has proven he has been able to bounce back.

However, there is something different about this loss. Maybe it was because he was coming into the fight as a heavy favorite against an opponent whom most pundits just blew off as a simple stepping stone. And maybe it was because he was thoroughly dominated by an opponent most people underestimated.

It may be hard for those of us outside of the Pettis circle to truly know, but this loss to Rafael dos Anjos has to really sting. But for Pettis fans, the loss hits them in their guts. Dana White told Fox Sports' Ariel Helwani (h/t MMA Mania's Alex Schlinsky) even his son was crying after the Anthony Pettis loss.

In Sam Sheridan's book, The Fighter's Mind: Inside the Mental Game, American Top Team co-founder Ricardo Liborio stated:

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You have to [understand] you can lose. Somebody can beat your ass; but you can overcome...it's not your time, it's not your day. Just because you lose doesn't make you a loser. It's not the same fight every time.

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Sheridan also interviewed legend Pat Miletich in The Fighter's Mind, who stated:

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In this sport, nobody wins a world title undefeated. You have to lose fights to get better, honestly...A loss is sometimes just the thing to bring a guy back to earth. Some guys will be on a roll and turn into complete a------s.

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Is Anthony Pettis, to paraphrase Miletich, a jerk? Certainly not. I've interviewed him, and he was kind enough to take a picture with me after the UFC 181 post-fight press conference. So my brief personal experiences with the guy don't lead me to that conclusion.

But to be a fighter, you need a huge ego, or at least a ton of confidence. And after a huge win streak and hitting the stardom that Pettis has reached, it would be easy to feel like you are above it all.

Technically, this loss showcased the holes in Showtime's fight game. Of course, the way to remedy that is to go back to the gym and fix those holes.

Before UFC 185, Bloody Elbow's Connor Ruebusch pointed out that when backed against the fence, Pettis' footwork was "sloppy and ineffective" as he squares himself toward his opponent. Dos Anjos did a great job of exploiting this and kept a majority of the fight on the edge of the Octagon with Pettis backed up against the cage.

If Pettis were to improve on this, he would have to utilize angles and simply become a matador in the octagon.

In the end, a devastating loss can actually benefit a fighter, because it forces him to improve and become better. It creates more hunger, and we may even see a better, more entertaining Anthony Pettis because of it.

The final piece that could create a comeback: team.

Despite combat sports being an individual effort, it definitely takes a team to prepare for a fight. Coaches, sparring partners and even family and friends are a necessary part of being a fighter. There's a lot of emotion that goes into the lead-up to a fight.

Going back to The Fighter's Mind, Sheridan acknowledges that losing a fight in front of thousands or millions of people can be so psychologically damaging, it could permanently change your brain. But "subsequent support is crucial...to returning to a normal state of mind," writes Sheridan.

From the military to fight camps, there is a camaraderie that is built by those who suffer together. When you suffer, you don't suffer alone. If you are in a tight-knit fight camp, you can never truly feel alone. I'm not in the Pettis inner circle or train at Roufusport, but my assumption is that guys like CM Punk, Ben Askren, Duke Roufus and the Pettis brothers have each other's back. You saw it as the Roufus camp pounced on Ryan Benoit for kicking Sergio Pettis after the fight was over.

In our society, where we value the win, it is the loss where we can examine a fighter's true character. Pettis is a world-class fighter, and with his support system at Roufusport, we are bound to see a better Anthony Pettis next time around.

As he said in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, "No excuses...I gotta go back to the gym and train."