Friday night played host to Bellator 272 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT. Main eventing the show was a fight for the Bellator bantamweight championship where current bantamweight champion and Milwaukee, WI native Sergio Pettis would defend his belt for the first time against former Bellator and RIZIN bantamweight champion Kyoji Horiguchi.
Despite being the current champion, Pettis would go into the fight as a slight underdog to Horiguchi. This would be for good reason, as throughout the first four rounds many had Horiguchi winning on the scorecards. But with just 1:40 left in the fourth round, after just missing a high kick, Pettis would land the most perfect spinning backfist you've ever seen that would put Horiguchi's lights completely out.
Just in case you missed that, here it is again in slow motion:
Pettis would retain his bantamweight title in one of the most exciting finishes in a title fight many fans have ever seen, especially given that Pettis was losing most of the fight. Thankfully Pettis realized just how out Horiguchi was and showed restraint in not landing an additional hammer fist before the referee could step in. Horiguchi was OUT out. In the cage, he was examined by doctors for a long time after the knockout, longer than most. In fact, Horiguchi would end up leaving the cage in a stretcher and then be transported immediately to the hospital.
No update has been given as of now on his condition, although it is assumed to be nothing too serious and just precautionary. Since Pettis was losing for the majority of the fight, some fans have called this ridiculous KO victory nothing more than a fluke win for Pettis. However, sparring footage was dug up of Pettis practicing the EXACT high-kick-into-spinning-backfist sequence that won him the fight. Check this out!
For years Pettis was thought of nothing more than just the little brother of Anthony Pettis, the former WEC and UFC champion. Now Sergio has emerged to become his own star, which Anthony should be happy about. After all, Anthony won big on his little brother last night. Anthony posted his screenshot of his $10,000 bet on his little brother, which earned him some big money with Sergio as a +175 underdog.
Anthony would go on to say that Sergio is "only getting started"
This was Bellator's final event for 2021 and they have not yet announced their 2022 schedule.
