Sergio Pettis quits Roufusport after Duke Roufus died: going to the gym 'didn't feel right'

The former Bellator bantamweight champion says he has not been back to Roufusport at all, and fights Joji Goto at PFL Dubai on Saturday.

Sergio Pettis has left Roufusport after the death of head coach Duke Roufus, telling Bloody Elbow that he had been with Roufus since he was 13 years old and that "not having him around was really weird".

"I was still training at Roufusport, I wanted to leave a legacy but going to the gym just didn't feel right," Pettis said in an exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow. "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."

"I found some new training partners and coaches that I felt were more compatible with me at the moment," he added. "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." He has split his time between Valle Flow Striking in Illinois and Pura Vida and Wanderley JiuJitsu in Milwaukee.

The former Bellator bantamweight champion faces Joji Goto on the main card of PFL Dubai at the Coca-Cola Arena on Saturday 14 November, where Vadim Nemkov defends the PFL heavyweight title against Sergei Bilostenniy. It starts at 6pm UK time, at the arena where Pettis and Roufus had their last moment in the cage together.

News of Roufus's death came two weeks to the day after he cornered Pettis to a knockout of Magomed Magomedov in Dubai in October 2025. Pettis stayed at Roufusport for his return to the PFL cage, but was beaten by the unbeaten Mitch McKee in April.

"He seemed so healthy," Pettis said. "We were just in Dubai, had a crazy performance and two weeks' later he just passes away... It was devastating and still to this day is devastating, that's my homie."

"He's been a father figure to me since I was 13 years old, I've seen him literally every day since I was 13 or 14 years old so it's been different," he added. "The last camp was sort of pulling through things and trying to continue the legacy. I was more fighting for Duke than myself, I even wore his name on my shorts."

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