Andre Petroski saw a lot of “holes” in Nick Maximov’s game, told his friends he’d submit him in the first round

Andre Petroski wasn’t surprised when he submitted Nick Maximov despite being the biggest underdog at UFC Vegas 54.

Petroski asked for the fight as he knew Maximov came with a lot of hype due to the fact he was undefeated and a main training partner of the Diaz brothers. Why he wanted the fight was due to the fact he saw a lot of holes in his game and knew he could expose them.

“It was a great weekend is for sure. I saw holes, I do my homework, I’m definitely a student of the game, I might not be the hardest worker but definitely one of the best students, I study a lot of fighting,” Petroski said to BJPENN.com. “When I watch him, I noticed he shot with his head down, his head outside a lot, it’s not terrible, Cormier shoots head outside singles a lot. But, it can put you in a bad position sometimes and I knew he had a lot of bad habits. I knew I could scramble with anybody and could get ahold of his beck rather quickly.”

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Heading into the fight, Petroski had heard all the talk that Maximov is a grappling ace. Yet, he wasn’t worried about any of that and instead, had told his friends and family to bet him to win by first-round submission which led to one of his friends making $25k from it.

“Honestly, it makes sense he was the favorite, you have the entire Diaz army behind him and they all love those guys,” Petroski explained. “They have a huge following and they are all biased and not the most educated on fighting. I understand why he was the favorite and so hyped up but for me, when I saw I was this big of an underdog I was happy as I knew my friends and family got rich. I told people all week it will be a first-round submission and I know some of my friends bet that. A lot of people got rich this weekend.”

Not only was Andre Petroski the biggest underdog on the card, but he also had some self-imposed pressure on himself. His gym in Philadelphia is undefeated in the UFC as he trains with the likes of Sean Brady, Pat Sabatini, and Jeremiah Wells among others, so the TUF alum didn’t want to be the first to lose in the UFC from their gym.

“Not from my teammates or my coaches but self-imposed pressure, yeah,” Petroski said. “At one point during the build-up I was like ‘damn, I better win this s**t because I’m not giving my team their first loss in the UFC.'”

With Petroski getting the submission win, the plan is to hopefully get a quick turnaround or get a short notice fight. The Philadelphia native wants to be as active as possible and end the year as a top-15 middleweight.

“I’d love a quick turnaround but it’s tough right now. The UFC is already booking August so for me to get a fight would have to be short notice, which I’m down for but that’s out of my control,” Petroski concluded. “I’m going to stay in the gym, I’m also going back to lifting, I didn’t lift at all for this camp, it was more endurance, running, biking, and all that.”

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