Lättviktsmästaren Anthony Pettis (18-2) förklarar att han förstår hur det är att vara nära festelsen av vara ute och festa, men att han känner att han kan ta avstånd från utelivet, tack vare att han vet när han ska säga ja och när han ska tacka nej.
”It’s hard. Jon’s young. He’s my age: 27. You get put in front of a lot of people who care about who you are and there’s some negative energy around that, as well. Some people don’t want to see you do good or want to introduce you to things will bring you down, and it’s kind of up to you. You’ve got to be strong-willed. You’ve got to know what to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to.”
”For me, I lost my dad to that kind of stuff, so I already knew,” Pettis explained. ”I feel like I have a strong willpower not to get mixed up in that stuff. Anybody else, I think it’s hard. It’s definitely there. It’s around you at parties you go to and events you go to. These people have a different level of income and a different amount of money and it might be presented to you in a different way than somebody would in your neighborhood. That’s how it is for me.
”If somebody presented it to me in my neighborhood I’d be like, ‘No, I don’t want to be like you. You’re not doing as good as I am.’ But then you see people doing way better than you and they’re doing it and presenting it to you in a different way, it’s hard to juggle. You have to be careful.”
Pettis väljer att inte vara ute och festa och har alltid med sig sin bror Sergio Pettis (12-1) inför matcher, för att hjälpa honom att fokusera. Pettis möter härnäst Rafael Dos Anjos (23-7) på UFC 185 som går av stapeln den 14 mars.
