Why Sergio Pettis beats Mitchell McKee at PFL Chicago

Sergio Pettis could be entering a stage of peak performance, where his physical skills intersect with the wisdom and knowledge accrued through years of hand-to-hand combat. The former Bellator MMA and Resurrection Fighting Alliance champion will look to elevate his standing in the Professional Fighters League when he toes the line against the unbeaten Mitchell McKee in the PFL Chicago main event on Saturday at Wintrust Arena. Pettis, 32, climbs into the cage as a slight favorite against the promising prospect.

As such, he appears to have multiple avenues to victory ahead of his first top-of-the-ticket assignment in the PFL. A look at three reasons why Pettis beats McKee at the company’s first show in The Windy City in almost a year: Experience When Pettis first burst on the professional MMA scene at the age of 18 on Sept. 10, 2011, McKee was well over a decade away from his own debut.

The difference in seasoning between them remains stark. Pettis has more than three times as many bouts (32) on his resume than the Kill Cliff Fight Club rep (10) and nearly four times as many rounds (87) under his belt than McKee (22). Even more importantly, Pettis has spent much of his career competing at the sport’s highest levels.

That includes a successful 14-bout stint in the Ultimate Fighting Championship during which he compiled a more-than-respectable 9-5 record. Pettis has also beaten a number of his most accomplished contemporaries, most notably Brandon Moreno , Joseph Benavidez , Kyoji Horiguchi and Patricio “Pitbull” Freire . Lethality Pettis more or less carries an established reputation as a crafty point fighter, with 16 of his 25 career wins having resulted in decisions.