The text on Sunday morning meant everything to Duke Roufus. He knew he did the right thing the night before when he didn’t let Anthony Pettis out for the third round of a UFC 229 fight against Tony Ferguson due to a broken hand. But hearing from Annette Garcia confirmed it.
“His mom texted me the next morning, thanking me for protecting her son,” said Roufus. “That’s the most important thing that goes through my mind. We’ve done a lot of winning, and I’m not saying we don’t want to win, but I’m at the stage of my life where I want to make sure that I’m happy and I don’t know – even if he would have won the fight with a broken right hand – if I would be happy with him sustaining a lot of damage to do it.