Former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis made his debut in the boxing ring to plenty of plaudits this Sunday. Pettis defeated boxing Hall of Famer Roy Jones Jr. in his first fight in more than three years. Pettis won the bout after the majority decision went his way in Milwaukee.

Two judges scored the bout 77-75 and 78-74 for Pettis, while a third judge scored it a 76-76 draw.

This was 54-year-old Jones’ first fight since a non-scored exhibition match against Mike Tyson in 2020.

This was Pettis’ first professional boxing match and after the bell following their eight-round main event of Gamebred Boxing 4 from Fiserv Forum, he embraced Roy Jones Jr and shared positive words about him.

“He’s a legend of the sport,” Pettis said of Jones. “I’m going to take it one fight at a time. I’m 1-0 as a pro so I’m excited to see what the future holds. I had a great team behind me and I wanted this.”

Meanwhile, Pettis, who was known as ‘Showtime’ during his UFC days possibly has another opponent waiting for him. His tweet about the victory with the caption ‘1-0’ was quoted by former UFC title holder Rafael dos Anjos.

Anjos simply wrote, ‘Rematch in box?’ to his tweet.

The two individuals are, of course, no strangers and have fought before. They squared off against each other all the way back in 2015 at UFC 185. Pettis had lost the bout and the championship by unanimous decision on that occasion.

‘Showtime’ was one of the biggest stars in UFC during his heyday and in fact, he was popular in the mixed martial arts world as the lightweight king of UFC. However, with the advent of time and his age, his performances in the ring started getting worse and showing signs of deterioration. 

After finally locking up back-to-back victories inside the octagon, the BJJ black belt parted ways with the promotion and found himself as a potential new poster boy of the rising Professional Fighters League (PFL).

Although he tried to fight his way to the $1 million prize in PFL, he came up short against Clay Collard in his promotional debut. He has an unfortunate 1-4 record since leaving UFC, which could be one of the reasons why he contemplated taking on boxing. Don’t forget to visit Nextbet and explore more boxing news and betting opportunities.