Anthony Pettis is going to India, and he says he’s going there to settle a family debt. The former UFC lightweight champion will box Neeraj Goyat, the country’s top professional boxer, in a six-round super welterweight bout at 154 pounds on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2027. Promotional officials confirmed the matchup to MMA Fighting on Wednesday, and Bloody Elbow is billing it as the biggest boxing card India has ever put together.
IPBL Boxing is presenting the event, and the Indian Boxing Council is sanctioning it. Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian’s MVP is co-promoting. The host city hasn’t been locked in yet. Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and Chennai are the finalists, with an announcement expected in November.
The revenge angle is real, and Pettis is leaning into it. His younger brother Sergio Pettis, the former Bellator champion, dropped a unanimous decision to Sabari Jaishankar in a boxing match in India in March 2025. Big brother wants that one back.
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“I have seen what Indian fighters can do, and Neeraj is the best of them,” Pettis said. “That is who I want. I have thought a lot about Sergio’s loss. This one is for him, and I am coming to win.”
The records
Pettis is 1-1 as a boxer. He won a majority decision over Roy Jones Jr. at Gamebred Boxing 4 in April 2023, then lost a decision to Chris Avila on the undercard of Nate Diaz vs. Jorge Masvidal in July 2024. That Avila fight is still his most recent appearance in any combat sport. He’s 39 now and turns 40 a few days after this fight.
He’ll stay busy before then. Pettis is also booked to grapple Donald Cerrone at RAF 15 in Chicago on Nov. 28, so that’s two bookings announced in roughly a week for a guy who’d been on the shelf for over two years.
Goyat brings a much thicker résumé. He’s 21-4-2 with nine knockouts across 27 pro fights and is riding a five-fight win streak. The best-known win on that run came against Brazilian YouTube star Whindersson Nunes on the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson Netflix card. MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz joked on X that in some parallel universe we’d be getting Pettis vs. Nunes instead.
For Goyat, the location is the whole point.
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“I have fought in China, in Thailand, in America and in the UK, and every time I was the Indian on somebody else’s card,” Goyat said. “This time the card is ours.” He added that he’d waited his whole career to fight a name like Pettis in front of his own people, and closed with this: “I am not giving that night away.”
Paul and Bidarian, who signed Goyat, put out a joint statement that politely tells Pettis he’s walking into a boxing match. “Anthony Pettis is an MMA icon, but this is boxing, and we expect Neeraj to show exactly why we believed in him from day one.”
Quick take
I love the matchmaking and I’m worried for Showtime. This card has an actual story. The hometown kid gets his first big night at home, and the visiting legend says he’s there to clean up his little brother’s loss. That beats two guys inventing a feud on a podcast. Look at the numbers, though. Pettis is 1-1, coming off a loss, two years out of any ring, and a week from 40. He’s facing a 27-fight pro on a five-fight win streak, in front of a crowd that has been waiting for this. MVP didn’t fly a UFC champion to India so its own guy could lose. Six rounds gives Pettis a short race and a puncher’s chance. I’ve got Goyat by decision unless Pettis finds something on Jan. 23 that he didn’t have against Avila.
