Sergio Pettis got his butt kicked on Saturday night. Literally.
Coming off a loss in his UFC debut, Ryan Benoit was fighting with his back against the wall at UFC 185 against Pettis, one of the flyweight division’s brightest prospects.
The preliminary bout was generally looked at as another stepping stone in Pettis’ development as a future top-tier contender. But in a night filled with upsets, Benoit emerged the victor after landing an emphatic left hook and pulling the coup no one expected.
As Pettis turtled on the canvas, Benoit swarmed like a vulture, picking at the leftover pieces of his downed foe. Referee Kerry Hatley eventually stepped in to stop the fight after giving Pettis plenty of time to recover. After the fight ended, Benoit gave Pettis a hard kick to the rear end before casually walking away and celebrating with his team.
The American Airlines Center in Dallas showered the hometown fighter with boos after seeing a replay of the post-fight strike. Luckily for Benoit, a lid was kept on a potentially explosive situation, mostly due to his remorseful post-fight comments.
“That was completely uncalled for and it’s shame on me for doing that. It makes me look bad, it makes my gym look bad, and it looks bad for the sport,” Benoit said when speaking to the media after the fight.
UFC President Dana White confirmed Benoit wouldn’t be punished for his actions during the post-fight press conference. He compared the incident to the post-fight punches thrown by Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Claudia Gadelha’s at UFC on Fox 13.
By White’s standards, the immediate apology and sincere remorse shown by Benoit was grounds to give the 25-year-old flyweight a pass.
“The kid was fired up. He did it. He immediately apologized afterwards,” said White. “The same thing happened in Joanna’s fight [with Claudia Gadelha], and she started apologizing. When someone apologizes and realizes what they did and apologizes, it's all good.”
Bellator fighter Paul “Semtex” Daley likely won’t be a fan of this decision. He was released from the UFC in 2010 after taking a post-fight swipe at Josh Koscheck. In all fairness, he wasn’t nearly as apologetic for his actions as Benoit and Jedrzejczyk.
Jordy McElroy is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon and FanRag Sports.
