Sergio Pettis leaves Roufusport after Duke Roufus' death ends a bond forged at 13

Sergio Pettis has left Roufusport, the Milwaukee gym that shaped his entire career, saying he could no longer train there after the death of longtime coach Duke Roufus in October 2025. The former Bellator MMA bantamweight champion made the announcement ahead of his fight against Joji Goto at PFL Dubai on Nov. 14 at Coca-Cola Arena.

Roufus, who died at age 55, had coached Pettis since he was 13 years old — a relationship that spanned his entire professional development. Pettis said the emotional weight of returning to the gym without him made it impossible to continue.

“I’ve been with Duke since I was 13 years old and not having him around was really weird,” Pettis told Bloody Elbow. “I was still training at Roufusport, I wanted to leave a legacy but going to the gym just didn’t feel right. 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.”

Roufus died shortly after cornering Pettis in a knockout victory over Magomed Magomedov in Dubai — meaning his final act as a coach was watching his long-time fighter win. For Pettis, that context made the loss and the subsequent decision to move on all the more significant.

Since leaving Roufusport, Pettis has split his training between Valle Flow Striking in Illinois and Pura Vida and Wanderley Jiu-Jitsu in Milwaukee. He described the past few months as a period of deliberate reinvention.

“I found some new training partners and coaches that I felt were more compatible with me at the moment,” Pettis said. “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.”

Pettis now heads into the Nov. 14 card at Coca-Cola Arena with a new team behind him, facing Goto in what will be his first fight since the victory over Magomedov that Roufus lived to see.