TAMPA, Fla. – Vitor Petrino is no longer an undefeated fighter, but that fact hasn’t shaken his confidence ahead of UFC on ESPN 63.
The fight at Amalie Arena will be the third of the year for Petrino (11-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) and it’s against Dustin Jacoby, a member of the same Factory X team that handed him his first career loss.
In May at UFC 301, former title challenger Anthony Smith took out Petrino in just two minutes with a guillotine choke. Not only was it the first defeat of his career, but it came on home soil in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“Losing in Brazil carries some weight, but again, it’s part of the game,” Petrino told MMA Junkie and other reporters at Wednesday’s media day. “It was just a bad day at work. As I said, sh*t happens, and sometimes you just have to turn things around and move on forward. Just get prepared for the next fight and move on up.”
Petrino appears to carry the same demeanor he had when he was undefeated. It’s almost as if the loss never happened, but his professional record now has another number other than zero in his loss column. The result of the fight against Smith gave something for his detractors to talk about, but Petrino is focused on the good things in his life and career ahead of the fight against Jacoby (19-9-1 MMA, 7-6-1 UFC).
“Haters are always going to hate, but they’re always just waiting for you to make one mistake and just pound on it,” Petrino said. “I try not to pay attention to that because I think there’s so much more positive coming from fans. I’ve said this: I fight for fans. There’s so many good, positive things that heavily outweigh the negatives. There’s so many good things coming my way, that you end up even forgetting there were bad things.”
