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Anthony Pettis

Pettis is one of the few champions whose first card shows him in the WEC, not the UFC: 2011 Topps UFC Title Shot #98 arrived on 4 May 2011, a month before he ever fought in the Octagon and five months after the Showtime kick made him the final WEC lightweight champion. Nothing earlier exists — he is absent from 2010 Topps UFC Series 4, 2010 Topps UFC Main Event, 2010 Topps UFC Knockout and 2010 Leaf MMA, all of which carried other WEC names. That timing is why his rookie situation is messy: the seller checklists that mark RC cards in Title Shot do not mark #98, and the card most often sold as his 'Rookie RC' is the later 2011 Topps UFC Moment of Truth #218 UFC Debut card.

2011First card year
#98Earliest card
10Key cards
  • UFC debutJune 4, 2011 · The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale
  • DivisionsLightweight · Featherweight · Welterweight
  • FromMilwaukee, Wisconsin
#98
01

The earliest card

#98
Earliest card Rookie disputed

2011 Topps UFC Title Shot #98

Pettis's first trading card, from the 150-card Title Shot base set released 4 May 2011 — the product in which Topps first put WEC fighters alongside UFC ones. It shipped a month before his UFC debut against Clay Guida, so it shows him as the reigning (and final) WEC lightweight champion rather than a UFC fighter. Every earlier 2010 MMA product checked — Topps Series 4, Main Event, Knockout and Leaf MMA — lists other WEC names but no Pettis.

Where sources disagree

Sources disagree about whether Pettis has a rookie card at all. SportsCardsPro's rookie data field says 'No' for every 2011 Pettis card checked, while eBay sellers routinely advertise 2011 Topps UFC Moment of Truth #218 as his 'Rookie RC' and the Title Shot #FAR-AP autograph relic as a 'Rookie Auto Relic'. The usual RC-flag source, the Trading Card Database, was not reachable on this research, so no RC flag could be confirmed or ruled out.

Commonly misidentified

Listings call 2011 Topps UFC Moment of Truth #218 a 'Rookie RC' because it is a UFC Debut card; it is not his first card. Sellers also list the Title Shot #98 Gold, Silver and Bronze parallels as 'the rookie' when they are parallels of the same base card.

Probable×1View sources & research
Earliest card guide Card record
02

Key Pettis cards

10 cards chosen for significance, not completeness; autographs and numbered cards follow below.

2011 Topps UFC Title Shot Fighter Relics #FR-AP Relic
2011 Finest UFC #49
2011 Topps UFC Moment of Truth #218
2012 Topps UFC Knockout #31
2013 Topps UFC Knockout #23
03

Card history

Pettis is one of the few champions whose first card shows him in the WEC. 2011 Topps UFC Title Shot, released 4 May 2011, was the product in which Topps first mixed WEC fighters into a UFC base set, and he lands at #98 in its 150 cards - a month before he ever fought in the Octagon, and five months after the Showtime kick made him the last WEC lightweight champion. Nothing earlier exists: he appears in none of 2010 Topps UFC Series 4, 2010 Topps UFC Main Event, 2010 Topps UFC Knockout or 2010 Leaf MMA, all of which carried other WEC names such as Ben Henderson and Anthony Njokuani.

That same May product holds his first relic and his first signature, so both predate his UFC debut. Fighter Relics #FR-AP comes unnumbered, with a Black version /88 and a Red /8, making it the first Pettis card a collector can chase in serial-numbered form. The Fighter Autograph Relics #FAR-AP is his first certified autograph, from a 35-contender subset that fell at roughly one per box.

The rest of 2011 brought his chrome cards and the card the market actually trades as his rookie. Finest UFC #49 is his first on chrome stock, with the deepest ladder of his early run - Refractor /888, Xfractor /388, Gold Refractor /88, Octafractor /8, Red Refractor 1/1 and a printing plate - and a Finest Autograph #A-AP beside it. Moment of Truth followed on 30 November 2011 with base #218 in a 220-card set, plus Certified Signatures #CS-AP from the product's 70-card autograph series, a Fighter Gear relic and an Autographed Fighter Gear card /25. Whether he has a rookie card at all is unsettled: dealers title #218 'UFC Debut' or 'Rookie RC', a seller checklist for Title Shot marks that set's RC cards and does not mark #98, and SportsCardsPro's rookie field reads 'No' on #98, #49 and #218 alike. The useful fact is that #98 is seven months earlier than the card most people buy as the rookie.

2012 Topps UFC Knockout, out 6 April 2012, gave him base #31 in a 100-card hit-driven set, so those base cards are far scarcer than the 150- and 220-card issues of the year before; the Green /88 and Red /8 are the versions worth hunting, while the Gold and Silver print runs are reported differently by different checklists. The signed content in that product is the best of his career to that point - a Fighter Autograph #FA-AP, a Notable Nicknames autograph #NN-AP playing on 'Showtime', a Triple Threads relic and a dual autographed fight mat shared with Clay Guida, the man who had beaten him on his UFC debut.

2013 Topps UFC Knockout #23 is his last base card before the belt: he armbarred Benson Henderson in the first round at UFC 164 on 31 August 2013, the rematch of the WEC 53 fight that made his name, and the Red /8 is the version collectors chase from a set that stayed thin and hit-heavy. His late-career signature is on a throwback: 2020 Topps UFC 1985 #85T-4, the autographed version of the 1985-design card, issued as he closed out his UFC run before moving to the PFL that December.

Sources for every paragraph

04

Autographs

4 certified autographs in the archive.

2011Topps UFC Title Shot Fighter Autograph Relics #FAR-AP AutoRelic
2011Finest UFC Autographs #A-AP Auto
2011Topps UFC Moment of Truth Certified Signatures #CS-AP Auto
2020Topps UFC 1985 #85T-4 Auto
05

Card eras

2011
Title Shot — the WEC champion's first cards

Topps put WEC fighters into the 150-card Title Shot base set released 4 May 2011, and Pettis landed at #98. The same product gave him his first relic (#FR-AP, Black /88 and Red /8) and his first certified autograph, the Fighter Autograph Relic #FAR-AP.

2011
Finest and Moment of Truth

2011 Finest UFC #49 put him on chrome stock with a full refractor ladder down to an Octafractor /8 and a Red Refractor 1/1, plus a Finest Autograph #A-AP. Moment of Truth followed on 30 November 2011 with base #218 — sold by most dealers as his UFC Debut / rookie card — and the Certified Signatures #CS-AP.

2012
Knockout and the nickname autos

2012 Topps UFC Knockout (6 April 2012) gave him base #31 with Silver, Green /88 and Red /8 parallels, a Fighter Autograph #FA-AP, a Notable Nicknames Autograph #NN-AP and a Dual Autographed Fight Mat Relic with Clay Guida.

2013
Champion

2013 Topps UFC Knockout #23 is his last base card before he took the UFC lightweight belt from Benson Henderson by first-round armbar at UFC 164 on 31 August 2013. Its Red /8 is the scarce serial-numbered version.

2020
Topps throwback autographs

Late-career Topps releases leaned on retro designs; 2020 Topps UFC 1985 #85T-4 is an on-design autograph from that run, issued while he was finishing his UFC run before moving to the PFL in December 2020.

06

Parallels of this card

Base
—
Unnumbered
Gold
—
Probable
Silver
—
Uncertain
Bronze
—
Uncertain
Red
/8 (per Cardboard Connection's product-level parallel list; not confirmed on the base card)
Uncertain
Diamond
1/1 (per Cardboard Connection's product-level parallel list)
Probable
07

Sets

Where Pettis's key cards come from.

08

Buying & wanted

Wanted by FightCardboard
  • 012011 Topps UFC Title Shot #98 — the Diamond 1/1 and Red parallels of his first card
  • 022011 Topps UFC Title Shot Fighter Autograph Relics #FAR-AP, his first certified autograph
  • 032011 Finest UFC #49 Octafractor /8 and Red Refractor 1/1
  • 042011 Topps UFC Moment of Truth #218 Ruby /8 — the parallel of the card dealers sell as his rookie

Offer one

Available here

Nothing from this archive in the vault right now. Selling one?

Sources & research High confidence×9Probable×7

Every factual claim on this page, the evidence behind it, and an honest confidence level. Where sources disagree the disagreement is kept, not quietly resolved.

Probable

Anthony Pettis's earliest card: 2011 Topps UFC Title Shot #98 — Anthony Pettis.

No source reachable this research shows an RC-designated Anthony Pettis card, so this is filed as his earliest card rather than a rookie card. 2011 Topps UFC Title Shot #98 (released 4 May 2011 per Cardboard Connection) is the earliest Pettis card found: SportsCardsPro's set lists for 2010 Topps UFC Series 4, 2010 Topps UFC Main Event, 2010 Topps UFC Knockout and 2010 Leaf MMA contain no Pettis entry, and Cardboard Connection's 2010 Series 4 checklist explicitly does not include him. The Title Shot base set is where Topps first carried WEC fighters, which is why his first card predates his UFC debut by a month. An eBay 'pick from list' seller checklist for the set marks its RC cards as RC and does not mark #98, and SportsCardsPro's rookie data field reads 'No' for #98, for Finest #49 and for Moment of Truth #218.

High confidence

Pettis is one of the few champions whose first card shows him in the WEC. 2011 Topps UFC Title Shot, released 4 May 2011, was the product in which Topps first mixed WEC fighters into a UFC base set, and he lands at #98 in its 150 cards - a month before he ever fought in the Octagon, and five months after the Showtime kick made him the last WEC lightweight champion. Nothing earlier exists: he appears in none of 2010 Topps UFC Series 4, 2010 Topps UFC Main Event, 2010 Topps UFC Knockout or 2010 Leaf MMA, all of which carried other WEC names such as Ben Henderson and Anthony Njokuani.

High confidence

That same May product holds his first relic and his first signature, so both predate his UFC debut. Fighter Relics #FR-AP comes unnumbered, with a Black version /88 and a Red /8, making it the first Pettis card a collector can chase in serial-numbered form. The Fighter Autograph Relics #FAR-AP is his first certified autograph, from a 35-contender subset that fell at roughly one per box.

High confidence

The rest of 2011 brought his chrome cards and the card the market actually trades as his rookie. Finest UFC #49 is his first on chrome stock, with the deepest ladder of his early run - Refractor /888, Xfractor /388, Gold Refractor /88, Octafractor /8, Red Refractor 1/1 and a printing plate - and a Finest Autograph #A-AP beside it. Moment of Truth followed on 30 November 2011 with base #218 in a 220-card set, plus Certified Signatures #CS-AP from the product's 70-card autograph series, a Fighter Gear relic and an Autographed Fighter Gear card /25. Whether he has a rookie card at all is unsettled: dealers title #218 'UFC Debut' or 'Rookie RC', a seller checklist for Title Shot marks that set's RC cards and does not mark #98, and SportsCardsPro's rookie field reads 'No' on #98, #49 and #218 alike. The useful fact is that #98 is seven months earlier than the card most people buy as the rookie.

High confidence

2012 Topps UFC Knockout, out 6 April 2012, gave him base #31 in a 100-card hit-driven set, so those base cards are far scarcer than the 150- and 220-card issues of the year before; the Green /88 and Red /8 are the versions worth hunting, while the Gold and Silver print runs are reported differently by different checklists. The signed content in that product is the best of his career to that point - a Fighter Autograph #FA-AP, a Notable Nicknames autograph #NN-AP playing on 'Showtime', a Triple Threads relic and a dual autographed fight mat shared with Clay Guida, the man who had beaten him on his UFC debut.

High confidence

2013 Topps UFC Knockout #23 is his last base card before the belt: he armbarred Benson Henderson in the first round at UFC 164 on 31 August 2013, the rematch of the WEC 53 fight that made his name, and the Red /8 is the version collectors chase from a set that stayed thin and hit-heavy. His late-career signature is on a throwback: 2020 Topps UFC 1985 #85T-4, the autographed version of the 1985-design card, issued as he closed out his UFC run before moving to the PFL that December.

High confidence

2011 Topps UFC Title Shot #98 — Anthony Pettis.

High confidence

2011 Topps UFC Title Shot Fighter Relics #FR-AP — Anthony Pettis.

Probable

2011 Topps UFC Title Shot Fighter Autograph Relics #FAR-AP — Anthony Pettis.

Probable

2011 Finest UFC #49 — Anthony Pettis.

Probable

2011 Finest UFC Autographs #A-AP — Anthony Pettis.

High confidence

2011 Topps UFC Moment of Truth #218 — Anthony Pettis.

Probable

2011 Topps UFC Moment of Truth Certified Signatures #CS-AP — Anthony Pettis.

High confidence

2012 Topps UFC Knockout #31 — Anthony Pettis.

Probable

2013 Topps UFC Knockout #23 — Anthony Pettis.

Probable

2020 Topps UFC 1985 #85T-4 — Anthony Pettis.