Excitement is King
Combat sports have always been an interesting version of professional sports where the normal rules don’t always apply.
In any sport the best athletes always rise to the top while everyone else falls off in what is the ultimate meritocracy.
No matter what your background there is always a chance for you to be a professional if you are good enough.
Combat sports has a lot of the same aspects as only the fighters who can win truly can make a difference.
No losing fighter is a superstar in combat sports and for the top of the top losing just a few fights could mean that the fighter sinks down to being irrelevant.
That is the case for the most part but in combat sports there is room for those fighters who may not necessarily be the best.
In the UFC nobody would think that it would be the case as only the best of the best get to fight in the top promotion.
For the most part that is the case as fighters who lose a few fights don’t get their chance to move up until they figure it out in smaller promotions and find their way back.
There is not a lot of room for fighters to lose in the UFC but there are the exceptions that are few and far between.
These fighters are a rare breed in combat sports and in the UFC they can only find their way to this specific level through success.
These fighters are the ones who came into the UFC with great winning streaks and got good fights when they finally joined the UFC.
Through those big fights, they slowly built a reputation for being exciting fighters that always come into a fight with a lot of potential.
They are the fighters who make their way through the UFC earning more money than most because the regularly earn $50,000 bonuses.
The problem with a lot of these fighters is the fact that they have an exciting style that also opens them up for big upsets.
They may very well get a fight bonus for a big knockout or great submission or for getting into a brawl but fighting that way opens them up for the same to happen to them.
When a fighter is willing to go out and brawl they often open themselves up for knockouts or submissions.
Most of these fighters can get by on that talent and willingness to get into those brawls when they get to the top of the divisions that talent and willingness no longer separates them.
That is where they run into issues and that consistency begins to go away as they start to lose and struggle to find their way to a title.
Anthony Pettis is one of these fighters as he really made his name by doing what nobody else would try in the cage.
After he ran on the cage and launched a kick that touched Benson Henderson, Pettis was the only fighter people were talking about.
It was a big reason for his signing to the UFC and a big reason for getting big matchups at the start of his time in the UFC.
After a lot of success he found his way to title contention and took the lightweight title but since that time he never could sustain that success.
He lost the title to Rafael Dos Anjos and since that time has struggled to get back to the title with multiple losses.
Including that loss to Dos Anjos, Pettis is 3-6 in his last 9 fights which is usually enough to get a fighter cut from the UFC.
Pettis is an exciting fighter though and that excitement he brings to every fight keeps him in the UFC as a star.
That excitement is essentially what keeps him around as nobody really knows what will happen when Pettis is in the octagon.
That is why he got a shot against Stephen Thompson in a main event as he attempted to move up to the Welterweight division.
It was an important fight for both fighters who were looking to throw their name into the newly refreshed welterweight title picture.
After taking some damage in the first round against the awkward striking of Thompson it was time for the excitement to show up once again.
At the end of the second round, Pettis launched a superman punch that landed square and earned him the knockout.
It was a big win for Pettis as he made an impression in a fight that was meant to announce his arrival in the welterweight division.
Because of the excitement that he brings there is little doubt that he will find his way to the title race sooner rather than later.
There is still the concern though as his consistency still isn’t all there and he will need to find that consistency to fight for the title in his new weight class.
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