Sergio
Pettis has left
Roufusport, saying training there no longer felt right after
longtime coach Duke Roufus died last year.
The former Bellator
MMA bantamweight champion is preparing to face Joji Goto at
PFL Dubai on Nov. 14 at Coca-Cola Arena. Pettis said returning
to the Milwaukee gym without Roufus, who had coached him since he
was 13, was emotionally difficult.
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Sergio Pettis discusses leaving his longtime Milwaukee gym and
finding new training partners ahead of PFL Dubai
“I’ve been with Duke since I was 13 years old and not having him
around was really weird,” Pettis said in an
interview with Bloody Elbow. “I was still training at
Roufusport, I wanted to leave a legacy but going to the gym just
didn’t feel right. I’d be going there, being sad and just trying to
continue things and it didn’t feel right. I outgrew that place a
long time ago and Duke being gone signified that and I needed to
make some changes.”
Pettis has divided his training time between Valle Flow Striking in
Illinois and Pura Vida and Wanderley Jiu-Jitsu in Milwaukee. He
said he found coaches and training partners better suited to his
current needs.
“I found some new training partners and coaches that I felt were
more compatible with me at the moment,” Pettis said. “That’s what I
had to go through and this last couple of months has been a new
journey where I’ve been moving around to different gyms and I
haven’t been to Roufusport at all.”
Roufus died in October 2025 at age 55, shortly after cornering
Pettis in his knockout victory over Magomed
Magomedov in Dubai.