Anthony Pettis Looking To Find Groove Again At UFC 197 Vs. Edson Barboza

Anthony Pettis remembers being the lightweight champion of the world. He also recalls his time as the No. 1 contender at 155 pounds.

Today, after two consecutive losses to Rafael dos Anjos and Eddie Alvarez, he says, “I don’t know where I am now, I just stopped caring about that.”

For the record, “Showtime” currently is ranked third in the world entering his UFC 197 bout against Edson Barboza on Saturday. And when he says he doesn’t care about his place on the lightweight ladder, it’s not that he’s unconcerned about getting his belt back one day — it’s that he remembered the important things heading into this pivotal bout.

“I’m gonna take it a fight at a time and enjoy the ride,” Pettis said of his mindset these days. “That’s what I think got me to the belt. I definitely wanted to be the champ, but I didn’t know how close everybody was, and I think that’s what made me dangerous. I just went out there with nothing to lose.”

And every day in training camp leading up to those fights saw him pushing the envelope daily, going hard and coming up with moves that left mouths agape when he pulled them off on fight night. But along the way, he lost that love for training when it became more important to play it safe in order to just make it to the fight.

“Once this is your career and you’re used to a certain lifestyle and you start fighting for a paycheck, that’s when it becomes a job and then you’re afraid to get hurt because the paychecks don’t come,” he said. “I had a lot of bad luck with injuries in my career. I had four surgeries in nine years, and some pretty severe ones. It’s scary to think about, but I always got through it and always went on to the next fight.”