Las Vegas, NV — With Anthony Pettis making his return to the lightweight division at UFC 246, Carlos Diego Ferreira had the responsibility of welcoming him home.
Pettis, a former WEC and UFC lightweight champion, was back from a two-fight stint at welterweight. Ferreira (17-2) entered the fight on a five fight win streak. Well, make it six now. Ferreira submitted the former champion with a second-round rear-naked choke.
“It feels pretty good, especially because not so many people submit him,” Ferreira said following the victory, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press. “The last one was Poirier. I’m pretty happy with that. We put in a lot of work and effort. Now we see the glory of all the work we did.”
There was a lot going around around his UFC 246 bout, which certainly put the pressure on the Brazilian fighter. “It’s my birthday, I’m fighting in Vegas, this is a big card, all my family’s here,” he noted. “Now, after the win, I feel much better. I feel happy, I take a big weight off my back. I’m happy, I can’t wait to enjoy my birthday now, enjoy Vegas.”
Ferreira’s profile has been rising, as you would expect with a fighter who is now on a six-fight win streak And he knows it will rise more after a win over Pettis— though he appreciates he’s not there yet.
“In my social media I have a lot of people still commenting like, bad stuff, saying like ‘who’s that guy, who’s this?'” Ferreira said. “I know I’m not the top guy yet. I need to make my name up. But I want to show this, and I think I showed a little bit. Probably in the next fight, people are going to know me more.”
As for the best advice he got heading into the fight against Anthony Pettis, it was simple. “Go out there, [throw a] couple punches, and go for the takedown.”
Watch the full UFC 246 post-fight press scrum with Diego Ferreira above!
