Dana White gushes about Anthony Pettis after he pulls off spectacular KO of Wonderboy

Dana White is the latest entrant in the list of people who were swept completely by Anthony Pettis’ superman punch knockout. Pettis completely floored Stephen Thompson in the main event of UFC on ESPN+6 which took place this past Saturday at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.

After getting battered at the hands of Wonderboy for more than 9 minutes of the fight, Wonderboy pulled off a spectacular superman punch out of his arsenal. With just 5 seconds left on the clock, referee Herb Dean was forced to intervene and stop the fight. The win marked Pettis’ debut into the 170 pounds division. With the victory, Showtime was able to achieve what no one else was able to : stopping Thompson with a TKO.

MMA: UFC Fight Night-Nashville-Thompson vs Pettis — Picture Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

“Pettis was a +385 underdog, huge underdog. I loved his gameplan from the beginning,” White said Saturday night on the ESPN+ post-fight show. “I’m assuming — I don’t know this — (coach) Duke Roufus studied ‘Wonderboy’ and the way that he jumps with his karate movement, it’s hard to block leg kicks, so he started busting up the legs early, both legs, on the outside, on the inside, to try to slow him down so he could punch with him.

“Think about this,” White continued, “Anthony Pettis, who was 155 and moved up to 170, was able to do what (Tyron) Woodley couldn’t do twice. I mean, that’s pretty impressive. And I’m not ragging on Tyron, which is going to be the thing that comes out of this, but what Pettis did tonight is unbelievable against a bigger [opponent]. Look at the size difference with these two tonight.”

The win helped in attracting a lot of attention towards the former lightweight champion. Rafael dos Anjos tweeted that he is willing to fight the former WEC champ once he is done taking care of Kevin Lee. With the win, Pettis became only the third person after Kenny Florian and Conor McGregor to have UFC wins in featherweight, lightweight and welterweight.