Bellator flyweight champion, Sergio Pettis, knocked out Kyoji Horiguchi via spinning back fist in the fourth round last night at Bellator 272, in what was a huge come from behind win for the defending champ.
After spending the majority of the fight being dominated by Horiguchi, it only took Pettis one shot to close the show against his adversary and retain his world title.
During the post fight press conference, Pettis discussed the come from behind victory and how having faith in his game plan won him the fight.
“The first four rounds, he was getting me,” Pettis said. “He was getting me frustrated. He got me with some interesting movements, some in and out plays and I had to face a lot of adversity tonight to get that finish and it was perfect. It was beautiful.”
“This is like my fourth, fifth knockout ever in my career so, (to be) 27 fights in and to see this stuff finally happening, it’s beautiful man.”
“He just had an awkward style, I had to figure it out eventually and I had to stay true to my plan. My teammate Ren Hermota was like ‘be calm the whole time, be a ninja out there, just be calm, try not to go too much with the force’ and you know, that (knockout) was just a flow. I didn’t even force that I just flew it and landed so well.”
Pettis went on to explain how he thought he was able to land the spinning back fist on Horiguchi.
“I think rounds one through four is what got him comfortable exiting without really defending himself. So I threw that kick and missed and his exit allowed me to land that spinning back fist.”
While many people are calling it knockout of the year, Pettis has another name for it.
“That’s the knockout of my career so hopefully it’s knockout of the year. We’ll see man, there’s been some crazy knockouts.”
Source: YouTube
