Anthony Pettis: Bart Palaszewski - yeah, I didn't know who he was at first. I was calling him Bart Palakowski for a while. And then I think my cornerman told me it is Palaszewski.

FiveKnuckles.com: So what are you working on to beat Danny Castillo? Anything in particular?

Anthony Pettis: Danny comes from a famous camp. All the guys are tough there. Always come well-conditioned. They have good wrestling. Pretty much, overall, I think I need to train in my take down defense. And pretty much everywhere in mixed martial arts. I gotta worry about my take down, I gotta worry about my jiu-jitsu and my striking. Because he's good everywhere and I'm good everywhere. I didn't get to show off my jits in my last fight. I was coming off a shoulder surgery. I only had a couple weeks to prepare.

FiveKnuckles.com: So how's the shoulder then? Are you injury free now?

Anthony Pettis: Yeah, way better. I got the surgery done in September, and then I fought in December. So, you see, I had three months in between. And it's a pretty big surgery. So, the shoulder was doing good in the fight, but I didn't have enough time to prepare to make it 100% and get it back to normal. I feel like myself again. I'm looking awesome, I'm in great shape. Started doing new conditioning programs, and I'm feeling good.

FiveKnuckles.com: And since your only loss was to Palaszewski last December, would you ever want a rematch with him?

Anthony Pettis: Oh, I'd take that fight for free!

FiveKnuckles.com: You'd take that fight for free?

Anthony Pettis: I'd take that fight for free. Anywhere, anytime. He'd be fighting a whole different person. For sure.

FiveKnuckles.com: With a great shoulder.

Anthony Pettis: That was a 50% Anthony Pettis versus a 100% Bart Palaszewski, and it went three rounds.

FiveKnuckles.com: Yeah, it did, it was a split decision.

Anthony Pettis: A split decision, yeah. I mean, honestly, I thought I had the fight, but some judges saw it the other way. That's what happens in the fight game.

FiveKnuckles.com: What do you think you'd have to do to have the judges go in your favor next time?

Anthony Pettis: My ground game. I had no ground game in that fight. I couldn't do nothing on the ground because I was really self-conscious about the shoulder, so I tried to keep it standing as much as possible. But when we took it down, I kinda held on in guard and tried to make the ref get us back up. I'm sure he scored a lot of points with him being in guard. He didn't do a lot of damage, but it scored a lot of points on the judges. And stand up-wise, I felt like I was controlling him really well, and he really couldn't hit me. He clipped me once with a punch. It wasn't a knock down. He caught me off balance. I mean, I have really good jiu-jitsu, but I couldn't do it in my last fight because of injury worries.

FiveKnuckles.com: And you'd have rather been careful.

Anthony Pettis: Yeah, for sure. I've...