WEC lightweight No. 1 contender Anthony Pettis, who was featured on the MTV documentary series World of Jenks in September, reunited with filmmaker Andrew Jenks when Jenks called in Monday afternoon to join Pettis on MMAFighting.com's The MMA Hour. On Monday's program, Jenks revealed he was actually sent a number of tapes of fighters more popular at the time by the UFC/WEC during the pre-production process, but one particular captivating moment on Pettis' tape sealed the deal in his selection of Pettis.
"I don't think I've ever said this before," Jenks told host Ariel Helwani. "But he went to his dad's grave site, and I was watching the tape and wasn't even really listening to him and he goes to the site and it's full of snow, packed, all snow, the whole area, and you can't see anything.
"And he walks right up to his dad's grave site and rubs off the snow and it was right where the stone was and I was like, 'Holy cow, this kid must be sincere cause he must go there everyday cause he knew exactly where it was.' So that was point where I said 'I don't care' -- like everyone was saying 'he just lost, he may not be the next big thing,' and I was like, 'I don't care, he seems like a real good guy to follow.'"
At the age of 15, Pettis lost his father when his father became a victim of a homicide. The tragic event stalled Pettis' interest in Tae Kwon Do and set into motion Pettis' eventual discovery of MMA.
For World of Jenks, Jenks covered Pettis' WEC 47 fight against Danny Castillo in March. It was an especially important fight for Pettis who was coming off the first loss of his career and was facing the possibility of being released if he suffered another. Jenks talked about the tenseness he felt while watching Pettis step inside the cage.
"I felt like, it was like when a baseball player who is pitching a no hitter for nine innings and you don't want to say anything that could ever screw it up," Jenks said. "So you're just kind of sitting there and just shutting up. Just don't move, don't do anything, just let this guy do his thing. That was one time -- I ask questions a lot. I ask questions like every two seconds, and that was one point, where I was like I asked [Pettis' teammate] Pat [Barry] if he watched the tape. I asked Pat what Anthony was thinking because I did not want to go near his head at that time."
MIdway through the first round, Pettis connected on a head kick and followed with punches to knock out Castillo. With his WEC career intact, Pettis went on to submit his next two opponents with triangle chokes to earn himself a title shot on Dec. 16 against champion Ben Henderson. As long as he has no filming commitments, Jenks says he plans on being in attendance at WEC 53 in Glendale, Ariz. to cheer on Pettis in the main event.
On The MMA Hour, Jenks also talked about his initial perception of MMA, Pettis' influence on the MTV staffers and much more. Check out both Pettis and Jenks' interviews below.
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