Anthony Pettis’ baby brother is all grown up.
Sergio Pettis, the 23-year-old sibling of the former UFC and WEC lightweight champion, had his first career main event on Saturday night at UFC Fight Night 114.
And he proved ready for prime time. Pettis showed maturity in shaking off a poor first round against Brandon Moreno and put on a strong performance the rest of the way at Arena Ciudad de Mexico.
Pettis (16-2) took the flyweight contender fight via unanimous decision, taking a pair of 48-46s and a 49-46 for his sixth victory in his past seven fights.
Moreno, a Tijuana native, fired up the Mexican crowd with a fantastic opening round. Moreno was all over Pettis on the mat, cinching a body lock he never let go and raining down punches while going for chokes but never quite getting them in what was likely a 10-8 round.
“I definitely had to face adversity,” Pettis said. “He put me in a dangerous situation. I stayed calm and knew I had four more rounds.”
Indeed, Pettis turned the fight in his favor in the second and dominated the next three rounds. He mixed precision striking with deft use of timing and space and never let Moreno come close to once again taking the fight to the mat.
In the fifth, a battered Moreno finally succeeded in landing another takedown, but he couldn’t do much with it. Pettis defended well, landed an upkick when Moreno postured up, and eventually got back to his feet and regained control until the horn.
While the victory could put Pettis in line for a shot at the winner of the Sept. 9 fight between flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson and Ray Borg at UFC 215, Pettis doesn’t seem in a rush.
“I gotta wait for the higher powers,” Pettis said. “Obviously, I would like a title shot, [but] I’ve got things I have to polish up.”
Moreno (14-4) lost for the first time in four UFC fights.