Chicago, IL – The co-main event on a stacked Bellator 297 card this Friday night may be bigger than the headliner as bantamweight champion Sergio Pettis will defend his title against the history-seeking Patricio Pitbull.
“Biggest fight of my career for sure specially after the situation coming off of 18-months,” Pettis told reporters including Cageside Press on Tuesday.
“Getting thrown into the deep end right away with a killer like Patricio. Definitely a big task ahead of me. Biggest fight for sure.”
Pettis (22-5) will make his return to the Bellator cage after being out 18-months due to an ACL injury. After he was forced to withdraw from Bellator’s bantamweight grand prix an interim title was created which Pettis’ teammate Raufeon Stots won, but ultimately lost in the final against Patchy Mix.
“18-months since I competed. Long time away. It’s MMA anything can happen out there. MMA’s crazy,” Pettis said.
“Sucks to watch Raufeon go through that. He’s my teammate and my boy, but that’s how MMA works. Patchy looked really good last year. He did everything you need to do to get that million dollars, went through Horiguchi, Magomed Magomedov, and put the cherry on top with a beautiful finish. Definitely impressed.”
Mix will have to wait as Pettis has a very tough test in front of him on Friday night in the form of Patricio Pitbull who looks to make history by winning a belt in his third division in MMA.
“My coach was actually talking to me about it. He’s like I heard Patricio’s trying to come down to 135 and become a three division champ. He made a post on Instagram and tagged Patricio and his team in it, and they jumped on it right away,” he said.
“Bellator jumped on it right away, and that’s how I think things kind of played out.”
With Pettis unable to compete in the grand prix due to injury a super fight at Bellator 297 will be his return to MMA. 18-months away just to come back for the biggest fight of his career.
“If I put everything together and have some fun Friday night I believe I’ll be the one with my hand raised.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Sergio Pettis above. He defends his bantamweight title against Patricio Pitbull in the co-main event of Bellator 297 on Saturday night.
