Anthony Pettis (right) absorbed 90 blows over five rounds in losing his UFC lightweight title in March to Rafael dos Anjos. Credit: Getty Images

Gary D'Amato On Sports SHARE Anthony Pettis won the UFC lightweight championship in 2013 at the BMO Harris Bradley Center, beating Benson Henderson. Pat A. Robinson

After a 3-year run in which he won all five of his fights, claimed the UFC lightweight title and became one of the biggest stars in mixed martial arts, Anthony Pettis had a forgettable 2015.

In March, he lost his belt to Rafael dos Anjos in a brutal one-sided fight in which Pettis absorbed 90 blows over five rounds and wound up in the hospital with a concussion. There is nothing in sports that compares with getting pummeled in the octagon while a pay-per-view audience of 250,000 watches.

"It's very humiliating to lose to another man, whether you lose on points, you tap (in submission) or you get beat up," said Duke Roufus, Pettis' trainer. "It's all the same pain. There's a comfort in losing as a team. There's a discomfort in losing by yourself. It's god-awful."

In April, still dealing with the psychological residue from that beat-down, Pettis suffered a dislocated elbow while training and underwent surgery. The UFC world kept turning, with Holly Holm destroying Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor emerging as the newest love-him-or-hate-him champion.

Finally, the 28-year-old Milwaukee native is ready to reclaim what he lost — not only the lightweight title but the marketability that put him on the cover of a Wheaties box and helped him establish several businesses in the Milwaukee area, including a barbershop, MMA training facilities, a MetroPCS store and a sports bar.

He makes his long-awaited return to the octagon Jan. 17 at the TD Garden in Boston, against veteran Eddie Alvarez in UFC Fight Night on Fox Sports 1. It's a fight he can ill afford to lose.

"Coming off a loss, it's always important," Pettis said after a sparring session at Roufusport. "In the UFC, you get two or three losses in a row and you don't know if you have a job after that."

Pettis really doesn't have to worry about that. He's still the No. 1-ranked lightweight contender (Alvarez is No. 4) and recently signed a lucrative eight-fight deal with UFC. But his point is well-taken. A second straight loss would be difficult to recover from psychologically, if nothing else.

To that end, Pettis has reinvented himself. After getting taken down nine times by dos Anjos, he hired a new wrestling coach, Israel Martinez, who prepared Holm for her bout with Rousey. He spent time in Las Vegas with Floyd Mayweather, picking the boxing champion's brain about fight preparation. He also signed with new management.

"I'm really proud of the way Anthony handled himself through the loss," Roufus said. "He didn't make any excuses. He licked his wounds. Coming off a loss like that, you actually find out if (a fighter) really loves the sport. His love of the sport has grown even more."

Pettis admitted it wasn't easy bouncing back from the dos Anjos debacle. He thinks he took the fight too quickly, just three months after submitting Gilbert Melendez, and didn't take enough time to recover mentally and physically before going into another training camp.

Roufus saw that Pettis was flat in the locker room before the dos Anjos fight but by then it was too late. His man was on the defensive from the opening seconds and absorbed punishment for five long rounds, his face a bloody mess at the end.

In the final round, exhausted and with virtually no chance to win, Pettis thought about tapping out.

"I wanted to quit a couple times in that fight," he said. "I was like, 'I'm not going to win, but either I man up and finish this fight and know that I can take it for five rounds, or I quit.' I was like, 'Take it like a man and move on.'

"It's the first time ever I went to the hospital after a fight. I had to get stitches in my eye and I had a concussion. It was a (expletive) feeling."

Some fighters are never quite the same after such a devastating defeat, but Roufus saw no signs of deterioration in Pettis' skills, determination or passion. They have chalked it up to just one of those nights.

Pettis is determined not to let it happen again. He said his elbow is 100%, his training has gone well and he is ready to take it to the 32-year-old Alvarez, a former Bellator champion with a 26-4 record and a reputation as a fighter who will go out on his sword.

"Sometimes you've got to take a really bad situation and evaluate the positive from it," Roufus said. "I saw Anthony change as a fighter, a man, a person. I think we're going to see, finally, the Anthony Pettis I've been talking about."

That Pettis delivered one of the most famous kicks in MMA history when he sprang ninja-like off the octagon fence to deliver a right foot to Benson Henderson's jaw. That Pettis stopped Donald Cerrone with a thudding liver kick, beat up Henderson again to win the UFC title and has 275,000 followers on Twitter.

It matters little to Pettis that his fight against Alvarez is not on pay-per-view and that it's not the main event. The only thing that matters to him is getting his hand raised, which would move him closer to a rematch with dos Anjos.

"Everybody is like, 'You should fight Conor McGregor,'" Pettis said. "Yeah, Conor's the new name, but dos Anjos is the guy who did me. My vendetta is with dos Anjos. I need that belt back — from him. Perfect world, I'll get a title shot against the guy who beat me."

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