Lightweight Peter Petties makes his Titan FC debut on September 19th against Mohammed Abed at Titan FC 35 in Ridgefield, Washington. The 24-year old spoke with MMAOddsBreaker and discussed a variety of topics. How UFC 100 peaked his interest in MMA “I was a huge Rampage Jackson fan coming up, but that was just the highlights. I didn’t know anything about MMA, or how to get into it. One of my friends [from wrestling] we went to Champs the restaurant that shows all the UFC fights. We went to see [UFC 100] it was an awesome card it had Georges St-Pierre, Brock Lesnar, Dan Henderson, Michael Bisping. After [I felt] I could do that, all you need is some striking, a little bit of jiu-jitsu and I already had the wrestling base. From there I was just hooked, I went into training and never stopped since then honestly.” Georges St-Pierres’ influence on his career “Just his whole outlook on the sport. The way he trains, he dedicated his life to it. Honestly it sucks that he’s taking a break but I can see how [the sport] can be consuming. Because there are so many things to train not only your body physically but mentally it’s draining, you’re sacrificing a lot of time from your family, friends to give to the sport.” Nickname “The Joker” “I got it during wrestling, one of the big things when I used wrestle was that I used to smile a lot. I was just happy to be out there. You put in hours of training so when you actually get to a wrestling meet, it’s an exciting time to see your friends and family [support you]. It’s just one of those things that stuck with me throughout MMA as well.” Moment he knew he could make a career out of MMA “I always knew professionally I wanted to do it. But I will say in the past year or so I’ve seen a huge level jump. Training with current UFC fighter Ron Stallings, James Vick, and Master Lloyd Irvin who’s trained Dominick Cruz the highs of the highs. The man phrasing me, telling me how good I am. That’s one of the things actually makes me realize I am on this level. You always tell yourself that you’re going to be good but when you actually have other people see it in you, that’s a big thing in this sport.” Finding out he’d been signed to Titan FC “Oh my god honestly it was surreal. There is a video floating around of my coach saw me after a three hour grinder of a practice, I didn’t even realize he said my name. It didn’t really kick in until later that night where I didn’t sleep at all, that hey I’m actually fighting on Titan FC which is going to be shown live on UFC Fight Pass. Honestly I don’t think it’s going to kick in until I’m on the plane to Washington at this point. I’m just excited right now I’m just handling it the same as any other fight. I train all day, all night literally take a nap and get some sleep. Other than that just to show the world all about Peter Petties.” Balancing work with training and competing in MMA “I’ve been all in pretty much since college. Right now I do work on the weekends, I serve tables at The Melting Pot in Columbia, so I work Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. I train [two a day’s] Monday –Thursdays [also] Friday morning and Saturday morning.” Unhealthy food temptations working in a restaurant “It is super tough [being in that environment] my manager is really cool though, he gets me off when it’s time to get my weight down. So I definitely take the weekends off just a week or two out so I don’t have to be around that food. I’m a fat kid at heart, I love food. I grew up on the chubbier side growing up, so food is my one little achillies heel. But when it comes to cutting weight, wrestling has put me in a point when to cut it off. But right after I weigh in, the feast is on.” Matchup with Mohammed Abed I matchup pretty good. Honestly I think he’s a bigger guy, he comes from a camp that likes to grind, Pat Healy’s [camp]. Honestly a lot of respect to them, but I really think I matchup good against a lot of people, especially Mohammed. I don’t think he has any glaring talent or anything; he’s just a MMA guy. Honestly I’ve been around MMA guys forever at this point. I’m excited; it’s going to be a good show. I don’t watch too much tape, I pretty much try and worry about I’m going to do. Making sure I’m prepared in my assets and I’m going to make him attest to whatever I do. I’m really unorthodox in my fighting style. My strikes, wrestling, I can do jiu-jitsu. So honestly I think it’s going to be one of those things he’s going to have to adjust to.”How Downtime “I honestly like to sleep a lot. I do not sleep enough; I try to catch up on Z’s. If not I’m usually playing video games, catching up on my readings or watching some tape. Since I working weekends a lot of times I do miss some of the fights. So I try to catch up on the fights or check out the competition out there. Or just notice little things, like I always like to break down film. If there is something that someone does that I can take and put my own little take on it then I’ll definitely going to do that. For example Andrei Arlovski did this little backhand thing against Travis Browne. You can always take something from here, from there and putting your own style on it.” How this fight will end on September 19th “It will end with a TKO, if not the first, definitely the second round.” You can follow Peter on Twitter @WhysoseriousMMA.
