I think Pettis is / was a great fighter. That fight against Henderson was amazing. Obviously the showtime kick stole the show, but the whole fight was a thing of beauty, a back and forth technical war. One of the best LW fights I´ve seen.
There's the fact that the competition gets tougher and tougher.
Also, Pettis got figured out. There´s a blueprint to beat him.
But sometimes great fighters (like Penn for example) stay only a very short time at the top. And the fact that so many great fighters fail to stay on top for long, imo just reinforces the idea that mma is one of the toughest sports on the planet and with so many variables, that basically anything can happen and a fighter might lose everything "just like that". So yeah, Pettis was an excellent fighter, but the competition has caught up to him.
That´s why you have to respect guys like Fedor, Aldo, GSP for being so dominant, for so many years fighting the best of the best.
