Anthony Pettis details ‘crazy’ arson incident: ‘It sounded like gunshots’
Anthony Pettis has had a training camp he won’t soon forget before UFC 206.
The former lightweight champ, who’s currently scheduled to fight Max Holloway for the UFC interim featherweight title in Saturday’s main event, had four of his cars set on fire outside his Milwaukee home at the beginning of his training camp.
Pettis went on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour to talk about his upcoming championship bout, along with the scary start to his training camp.
“This is a crazy training camp,” Pettis told Ariel Helwani. “I was in Thailand when the fight got announced. First night I get back to Milwaukee and you know, I don’t know what happened. I bought a brand new Range Rover, I parked it on my drive way , and three hours later, it’s on fire. And three of my other cars caught on fire. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence because it’s a brand new car and something happened to it, or somebody actually came and did something to my house. I never felt threatened in Milwakee, even now I don’t feel threatened. I go around the city, I go everywhere, I got businesses here, so I don’t know, it’s just a weird thing. It’s a weird start to the training camp. We got a lot of little speed bumps in this training camp but it all led up to this, so we got to push through the hard times and the good times are coming.”
Pettis was at home with his daughter, his brother Sergio Pettis, and his nutritionist when the incident happened.
“Yeah, I was in the house,” Pettis explained. “I heard the loud banging. It sounded like gunshots. I heard loud pops, so I was like, ‘What the hell is that’. So I wake up and go to the front door and I see glowing red, so I open the front door and boom. My new Range Rover was in the drive way, and it was completely gone. It was my nutritionist’s first night in town, so I felt bad for him. He came in from Jersey, his first night in Milwaukee and he’s going through that, but we were outside and all three cars were on fire. It was weird because there were no threats made, I have no ongoing beefs, I have no drama in Milwaukee, so it’s just weird that it happened that way but we still have yet to find out what happened or who did it, or what.”
The three cars on Pettis’ driveway were completely torched, but the fire did not stop there, damaging his garage door, along with his Porsche and his boat that were parked inside the garage.
Still to this date, it’s unclear who cause the incident.
“No idea, no leads, nothing, the cops have nothing,” Pettis said. “So I mean, it is what it is. I feel like I’ve been the victim in my life before, so I just hope it’s got nothing to do with me, I just have to keep moving forward.”
MMA Fighting contacted the Milwaukee Police Department on Wednesday to see if there were any updates on their original report. The Milwaukee Police Department said that there is no new information on the case, but they continue to seek the suspect(s) responsible for the crime.
Since the incident, Pettis made some adjustments to increase security at his home and make sure he’s ready for any situation. But despite the scary incident, Pettis never considered pulling out of his fight with Holloway and much less leaving his hometown.
“No, never,” Pettis said. “Milwaukee is my hometown. This is the city that made me. I mean, I got family deep roots in Milwaukee, my dad is buried by my house, my mother lives three blocks… I bought her a house three blocks away from my house, you know. So Milwaukee is my hometown.”
On Wednesday, Pettis posted surveillance footage of two individuals sneaking into his vehicles parked on his driveway. It’s unknown if property was stolen from the vehicles, but Pettis did offer a reward for anyone who can identify the suspects who were captured on camera.