All things considered, Anthony Pettis barely got to experience a pro MMA career outside the Zuffa umbrella before signing with the Professional Fighters League in 2021. The former WEC & UFC lightweight champion spent just two years fighting on the regional MMA circuit, entirely with the now-defunct Gladiators Cage Fighting promotion, before getting signed to World Extreme Cagefighting back in 2009.
For more than a decade following, Pettis would be a staple of the WEC and UFC, competing at least once a year every year for the (eventually merged) sister promotions—up until his 2020 departure from the world’s largest mixed martial arts organization.