One of the top up and coming Flyweights in MMA today is Sergio Pettis. Yes, he is the little brother of UFC superstar Anthony Pettis, but this kid has talent and skill all his own. Watch him fight and you will see that this isn’t a guy living off his last name. He can scrap, he can brawl, and he is scary talented. Pettis took time out of his busy training camp to talk with the guys about staying active, his maturity, and what the future after fighting holds for the young Flyweight.

Like most fighters Sergio Pettis would rather be fighting than training. He does understand though that there are positives to training. It will have been 5 full months since he last stepped in to fight when he takes on Josh Robinson at NAFC: Battleground on March 29^th at the Potawatomi Bingo Casino in Milwaukee, WI.

“I would love to stay active. I’m happy with RFA though they are a great organization, they treat me well. I’m able to fight on TV; I’m very blessed to be with them. I wish I could have more fights, but sometimes you just got to make the best of what you got. I might be a little more time before I get to the UFC, but (inaudible) I stay constantly training I’m always getting better and better. I’m cool with it, if they do get me a lot more fights – great, good because I want to fight everybody, but if not I’m always improving.”

“I’m always in training camp; I think that’s when you get the best when you’re training even when you don’t have a fight. That’s when you get to experiment with different stuff. When you’re in training camp for a fight you have to stay disciplined to your game plan. I take that time to get better and sharpen my tools for all my other skills – my wrestling, my jiu-jitsu, my kickboxing-everything. It’s also you get a break, it’s hard training man, it’s tough you gotta dedicate a lot of time you gotta stay away from your friends, stay away from girls and all the parties and stuff. It’s cool to get little breaks in there.”

One of the things that Duke Roufus cannot teach is maturity. He can tell his fighters what they shouldn’t do, and to be smart but it is up to the fighter to listen. Sometimes it takes time for the message to sink in, but Pettis realized this is his job. It’s a 24 hour, 7-days a week job. If he takes a day off, it could set him back.

“It’s hard man; there are times where I wanna break loose. Go out have fun and be a normal kid. But at the same time it’s like why do that? It’s going to take time off my career I’m just focused on what I gotta do, I have a goal and I’m gonna do whatever I can to reach that goal. I want to be in the UFC and I want to have fun in the UFC Once I make it there is when I’ll have some fun, but I’m going to dedicate my life to this sportive been doing this since I was kid. This is what I want to do; I’m not going to waste my time trying to do something else.”

Another sign of maturity in this young prospect is how he already is looking to the future. Pettis knows he can’t fight forever, and probably doesn’t want to either. At some point in his career he will need to hang up the gloves, so he knows he needs to know what the next step will be at that time. The nice fact for him is that he has Anthony to guide him.

“I was talking to Anthony (Pettis) about it saying what can I do next after this? We’re fighters man we can only take so much, sooner or later our bodies are going to give out on us. I mean even after my last (fight) I was like WOW my face is all beat up, I’m only 19-yrs-old and like ok what am I going to do after this if this happens later on in my career? If I’m like 30 and get beat up and can’t fight again, I’m always thinking of the plan ahead, something to fall back on whether it is school or business wise. Anthony is preparing me for that, I’m just trying to follow in his footsteps.”

The Pettis brothers are very talented. They have each other’s backs and will help each other whenever they can. It will not be long before we see Sergio Pettis tearing it up in the UFC in the Flyweight division. Maybe one day they will even be on the same card. Make no mistake though Sergio is his own man, and a talented fighter on his own. He intends to prove that no matter what.

Listen to the full interview here:

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