It’s been a rough couple of years for Anthony Pettis. He began 2015 as UFC lightweight champion and poster boy for the promotion. He’d just defended his title against Gilbert Melendez and got a spot on the Wheaties box. ‘Showtime’ was on top of the world.

Then things started to go horribly wrong. Rafael dos Anjos obliterated him and took his title. Two more defeats followed. Then, just when it looked like he could salvage his career at featherweight, he blew weight before an interim title fight and was knocked out by Max Holloway. The Milwaukee native had never been so low in his career.

But in 2017, the 30-year-old has got back on track. Reinvigorated by returning to 155lb, he looked great by taking a dominant unanimous decision against Jim Miller – the most experienced man in the UFC’s best weight class – in an entertaining fight. Now the sport’s most dynamic and creative striker has his sights set on a run back to the top.

Fighters rarely go through a career without a difficult patch. Until recently, it was a tough one for you.

From the Rafael dos Anjos fight, I just had a really hard time. I beat Gilbert Melendez and felt amazing, then I went into the RDA camp and didn’t have that same spark. Something was missing, but I would never pull out of a fight. I fought RDA, and we all know what happened – I got demolished. That was the first time in my career I felt I wasn’t as good as the guy I was fighting. I always felt I was very close or better than my opponent. RDA was the first guy who made me feel like I didn’t have that pop or that energy. I didn’t have the willpower to get past that first punch. He hit me with a good punch at the beginning and I couldn’t see out of one eye. I started making excuses in my head and it was a rough time in that fight.

Then Eddie Alvarez happened…

I then go into camp right away to fight Eddie Alvarez and I dislocated my elbow and had to have surgery that was almost career-ending. It was an inch away from a nerve that would have prevented me from making a fist. I had that injury, got the surgery done, rehabbed for three or four months and then I fought Alvarez. He held me against the cage and I had two losses in a row.

And then Edson Barboza...

When I fought Barboza – with two losses in a row – my confidence was shot and he won a decision. That was the worst time in my career, for sure. I was questioning everything. I started moving around and changing camps. I changed training partners. I was just reaching for anything. It was the wrong decision. I should have just stayed on the path I was on and with my coaches and my team. I shouldn’t have changed anything. You lose three in a row and you’re going to grab at anything.

Was it a mistake to drop to 145lb?

The worst decision of my career. My confidence was always there, it was just making that weight cut was miserable, brutal. Throughout my training, I was cutting weight. I couldn’t even spar because I was so fragile getting down to the weight. But I made it one time for Charles Oliveira, we got the W, but then the UFC offers me a shot against Max

Holloway for the interim title and of course, I’m not going to decline that.

I go into the Holloway fight, I miss the weight because it was that hard of a cut, and we all know what happened in that fight. It was the first time in my career I’ve been finished. It was a desperate move to drop to 145lb. It made me lose the love for training and fighting because I was just miserable. Going back to 155lb made me comfortable again. I was enjoying myself. When I’m having fun in training, that’s when the best Anthony Pettis shows up.

How tough was it to ‘re-find’ yourself?

After that fight, my spirits were down, man. I took six months off and tried to figure out what I wanted to do. I didn’t know if I had the love to do it anymore. I didn’t even need to fight. I had enough businesses and stuff going on and I have a great life outside the cage. But I missed the training camp, the grind, the guys in the gym and running the miles and the pre-fight media. The love for that brought me back. I then fought Jim Miller and had a great fight and I’m looking to build on that. I’ve got Dustin Poirier coming up next and I’m excited again.

Is a fight with Conor McGregor now on your radar, too?

I think me and McGregor would make an amazing fight. I’m in a position in my career right now where I have to go on a winning spree. I’ve never lost the way I’ve lost in the last two years. I’ve never been on that side of the Octagon – with your head down walking out disappointed in yourself. If I can build on this Miller win and beat Dustin, that puts me right back in the mix. McGregor is on top of the world right now. He just fought Floyd Mayweather, one of the best boxers in the world. In the Octagon, fans want to see the fight. I think it will happen eventually. I’ve just got to go out there and do my job.

What’s on the horizon for you once you hang up the gloves?

After my time is done in the Octagon, I’m not sure where my life goes. I definitely feel like I will be coaching but I don’t know if I will have the passion Duke Roufus (head coach) does. Duke is so focused on building new guys. He’s bringing them up from fighting in bars in Wisconsin to the main stage in Las Vegas. There appears to be an unbreakable bond between you and Duke.

How important is that relationship?

It’s a relationship that was built over years and years. It didn’t just happen. To have somebody that you trust that much in your corner makes all the difference between winning a fight and losing a fight. We’ve been through so much, man. World championships, big wins, big losses. I think having him in my corner makes all the difference.

What about the bond you share with your brother, Sergio?

He’s been at all my fights and has been in the corner for world championship fights. He’s been around me my whole career, pretty much. I’ve definitely mentored him a lot. Not so much with his style, but more in terms of showing him how I’ve done it. I think me and Sergio have totally different styles. I’m a bit more wild and he’s wellschooled. I do crazy things.

Did you know from a young age that you would become a pro fighter?

Not at all. Fighting wasn’t part of the plan, it kind of just found me. I’ve done a lot of fighting, but I wasn’t planning on being a professional at all. It was more a love of martial arts. I wanted to do that as a career but I didn’t even think about fighting as an option. Fighting found me.

What were you headed towards?

I was 16 years old when I started my first business. School wasn’t my favorite thing, so I started a taekwondo business. I’ve pretty much been doing business my whole life. I still own two gyms, two barber shops and a sports bar.

You began martial arts early at the age of five. What were you like back then?

I was a daredevil in martial arts. I’d do jumping kicks and all the crazy moves, but I was afraid of competition. From six to 10, I couldn’t even compete in a tournament. That’s how afraid of competition I was. I was shy. I would get so nervous. My mum would always say just go out there and lose because I’ve already paid for the tournament. I would go out there and lose on purpose because I was so nervous to compete.

Is fighting a type of therapy for you?

I think it’s one of the things that takes you away from the problems of your life. If I have problems in my life or something’s going on, there’s so much to learn and so much to concentrate on that you kind of forget about the outside world. You’re just focused on the technique and the training and whatever it is you are trying to achieve at that time. For me, it’s definitely a therapy.

The tragedy surrounding your life when you were 16 years old is welldocumented. Is that what motivated you to go out and fight?

Losing my dad, I kind of had a pretty down time in my life from 16 to 19. He died when I was 16 and for three years, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I didn’t even know if I wanted to continue on. But I had a younger brother to think about, I had a mother to support, and I think that was my main motivation, more so than my dad dying and me wanting to exact revenge on whoever killed him. That wasn’t my motivation at all. I wanted my brother to have someone to look up to, and I wanted my mum to be proud of me. I wanted to get her out of the situation she was in, and that’s when fighting came in. At 19 years old, I started training at Duke’s gym and committed myself 100% to it. I was there every day and at every class. Duke was going to kick me out of the gym sometimes because I was there so much, and that’s when the two of us became really close at that stage.

Do you change persona the closer you are to a fight?

The whole eight weeks of my training camp I become a different person. Even now I’m about to fight this guy and I know the guy. We used to have the same sponsor. I’ve had dinner with him. To fight this guy, you’ve got to get yourself in this dark state of mind. Not dark like a murderer dark, but it’s me or him. Everything I do for the next few weeks will define what happens in that Octagon. Little by little, I slowly become that guy who shows up in the cage that night. It’s not just a quick switch that happens in the back room. You’ve got to become a different person and not make it so it affects you. It has to be a conscious nervousness where everything flows together.