5 Things We Learned From UFC 164

5. Showtime Is Here

The news just after the PPV ended that Pettis might have suffered a knee injury threated to spoil what was an amazing evening for the brand new lightweight champion. There is no question in anyone€™s mind that August 31st is the greatest night in Anthony Pettis€™s life. He once again beat Benson Henderson in a title match this time right in his home town and this time it didn€™t take him 5 rounds to wrestle the belt off Henderson. Pettis didn€™t even have to break out the legendary Showtime kick where he ran up off the cage late in the 5th round to land an insane Mortal Kombat like kick to win the title. No to win at UFC 164 Pettis first had to defend an early clinching onslaught from the champion who was trying to negate Pettis€™s deadly kicks and keep him under control. Pettis got free however found some space and landed some sick looking body kicks that hurt Benson. Only recently Pettis managed to stop the Cowboy Donald Cerrone with a hard body kick that just drove the air out of his lungs and here was the same story. He damaged Henderson with the body kick then when he was taken down Pettis was able to work off his back catching an arm of the champion and locking in a tight armbar. It was locked up in such a way that Henderson was so trapped he couldn€™t even move his other arm to tab out and in the end had to verbally submit for the match to be stopped. It was a huge and surprising result; those who had Pettis winning the fight certainly couldn€™t see the talented striker doing it by submission let only doing it in the very first round. No one can say Pettis did not earn his big night in the Octagon, His life story is uplifting from losing his father at an early age to having a young daughter and now seeing Pettis at the end hugging his long-time coach and celebrating his huge victory with his mother. Rightly Pettis is on top of the world and if he can keep himself healthy there is no reason why Pettis can€™t rule the 155 pound division. Right after the fight Pettis challenged Jose Aldo the 145 champion to a super fight which would be a must watch fight between arguably the two of the best strikers in MMA. I think Pettis will have to defend the belt a few times before he is given his dream fight; the likes of TJ Grant are in line for a title match so Showtime will have to get a few wins as champion before him and Aldo can lock it up.