The first two rounds didn't go as planned for Peter Petties in his 145-pound fight against Rodney Jordan at Shogun Fights XV in Baltimore Saturday night. In fact, the crowd voiced their displeasure with boos at the end of the second round.
Those jeers quickly turned to cheers, however, as Petties landed one of the biggest blows of the night by connecting with a straight right leg kick to the head of Jordan to earn a knock out victory at 1:29 of the third round.
"I tried to zero out the crowd and that one I was a little bit more tired than normal, but I'm always looking for the finish," Petties said after the fight. "... Now that that landed, everyone is going to forget about the first two rounds.
"Once that landed I saw his eyes roll back, the mouthpiece go flying. It was like ... one of those highlight finishes in the video game. It's another one to my resume, which I'm happy about, especially to do it at home with the home crowd and everything."
Petties, who improved to 4-1 and was never seriously threatened by Jordan, said he tried to start the fight with that same kick, but Jordan came out charging and slowed the fight by holding him against the cage. Petties eventually got a big takedown, slamming Jordan to the canvas, but the first round ended without much more action.
"I was trying to mix it up a little bit, work on my boxing a little bit," Petties said. "He smothered me, so that kind of threw me off, on top of – I didn't want to over exert myself."
Petties came out in the second round and starting working left kicks across the body. That was the extent of the action, though, and the crowd grew tired in the final minute of the round.
In the third, Petties continued his left kicks and added a left hook, but nothing was able to connect until his jarring straight kick sent Jordan's mouthpiece across the cage. Petties didn't even bother throwing another punch on the ground – he knew it was over.
He celebrated by straddling the top of the cage and enjoying the cheers of the crowd that was booing him just minutes before.
"The emotions are running so high. You always have this plan after a knock out, like I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, but after that, it was just a homerun," Petties said. "... I think it was one of the only flash knock outs of the night, so it was kind of cool."