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Theres nothing quite as humbling in combat sports as losing. Its the only weapon that can slice through the shield of bravado that a fighter needs just to step foot inside a cage -- transforming irrational confidence into an infestation of doubt.And what if said loss means the end of a world title reign and universal claim as one of the sports pound-for-pound best? And what if its followed up by two more defeats?If former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis has one word to describe his journey over the past 18 months, it would be dark.I was depressed. I was like, This is what I do. This is what I pride myself on -- [being] the champ of the world. Now Ive lost three in a row, Pettis told ESPN.com, during a Reebok FightHub event at UFC 205 in New York. Its a weird place to be at. You find out a lot about yourself when you lose. You find out how good you really are.Pettis, 29, responded to the losing streak in August by moving down in weight, and he looked spectacular in his featherweight debut by choking out Charles Oliveira. Four months later, a flurry of events conspired to transform his return on Saturday at UFC 206 in Toronto into a very big deal.Originally the co-main event, Pettis featherweight bout against red-hot Max Holloway (16-3) was pushed into a headlining role after an injury forced light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier to withdraw from his rematch against Anthony Johnson. Soon after, Conor McGregor vacated his featherweight title -- by choice or by force, depending upon your perspective -- and suddenly, the Pettis-Holloway fight had the interim featherweight title on the line (with Jose Aldo elevated to undisputed champion).While Pettis admits the victory over Oliveira definitely bought some confidence, the recent emotional toll of highs and lows has been heavy.Pettis (19-5), among the UFCs most dynamic and creative strikers, opened 2015 on the cover of a Wheaties cereal box. A little more than one year later, however, a trio of defeats to Rafael dos Anjos, Eddie Alvarez and Edson Barboza left many doubting whether he would ever be the same.Among those doubters was Pettis himself.You still have that thought in the back of your head -- that feeling of losing, Pettis said. It haunts you. Its one of the things I hate feeling and I felt it three times in a row. For a whole year I lost. It was a sh---y feeling, but I feel like for now, I have the first win under my belt for a new weight class and a new light. Im having fun training again and Im injury free.Pettis saving grace throughout his losing streak was that all three defeats came by decision. To that end, he was able to pinpoint a couple of small mistakes that cost him in each fight.At this level of the game, its a game of inches and centimeters, Pettis said. Anybody can beat anybody on any given day. If you have an off night, there goes the fight.I just feel like every time I went out there, there were a couple of small mistakes that cost me the fight. I didnt get knocked out, I didnt get submitted. It was just decisions and output, I think. So we just focused on the output, focused on not letting these guys hold me on the cage [like Alvarez did.]Pettis admitted he still questions himself constantly, and says that anyone who claims to be 100 percent confident when entering the Octagon is lying.If youre not nervous, youre not ready, he said.Entering Saturdays fight, Pettis is the betting underdog -- and thats been another positive motivating factor working in his favor. When you are the underdog, you have nothing to lose, Pettis said. People expect you to lose. If I go out there with a dominant performance, everyone is going to remember why I was the champ at one point.The other x-factor for Pettis is knowing he will be the bigger and stronger man after moving down in weight -- and that confidence could be just what he needs to balance out the uncertainty that lingers after his losing streak.Im way stronger. Oliveira is probably the biggest guy in the division [and] when he hit me, I didnt feel it. I wasnt hurt, said Pettis. Wrestling wise, he couldnt take me down. McGregor dominated [Holloway] from the southpaw stance, and as long as Max cant come forward, he doesnt build that confidence. Ive got to be the bigger guy out there and push him around. Wholesale Yeezy 350 . They hope to persuade the other team owners and commissioner Roger Goodell to put pressure on Redskins owner Daniel Snyder to drop the nickname they find offensive. "Given the way the meeting transpired," Ray Halbritter, an Oneida representative and leader of the "Change the Mascot Campaign," said Wednesday, "it became somewhat evident they were defending the continued use of the name. Cheap Air Max Plus . After dropping their final six games of December, the Wild opened the new calendar year with four consecutive wins. 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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar didnt mention either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton by name, but the presidential election was on his mind when he came to Harvard on Saturday to talk to the players on the?Crimson?basketball team.Nor did the Basketball Hall of Famer need to cite Colin Kaepernick by name when he said current sports stars were getting their baptism in social movements.Im glad to see that the younger athletes are concerned and saying something about it. Thats how we solve things, Abdul-Jabbar told reporters before meeting with the players.The Founding Fathers gave us a great method. But it requires us to listen and to inform others of our ideas in a polite and understanding way. They have a ways to go.Wearing a Harvard cap and sweatshirt, Abdul-Jabbar ducked his head to get through the door of the conference room overlooking the schools 113-year-old football stadium. Soon he would be joined by the players, all of them born long after he scored the last of his NBA-record 38,387 points.Settling into a chair in front of a fireplace with his latest book on the table in front of him, Abdul-Jabbar said he felt compelled to speak out about a political climate with an emphasis on anger and division.Theres a certain feeling of alarm among segments of our population because the skin color of the country has gotten a little bit darker over the past 20 or 30 years. And that has caused alarm for some people, he said. People of color are patriotic Americans in the same way that white people are.Abdul-Jabbar said it will be difficult to make progress on the countrys issues when the two sides arent listening to each other.A battle like this is not being waged with facts. That bothers me, he said. We should be able to agree on what the facts are.A student at UCLA in the late 1960s, Abdul-Jabbar lived through the Civil Rights movement and said he tried to follow the example set by Muhammad Ali, who was stripped of his title for refusing induction into the Vietnam War. Abdul-Jabbar refused to play on the 1968 Olympic basketball team, saying the country didnt represent him.Kaepernick made similar comments when he refused to stand for the national anthem before NFL games, a protest that renewed the debate on race.Its not easy, trying to motivate people, especially on something as politically volatile as these issues are. Peeople being shot in the street, its a very emotional and a very intense subject, Abdul-Jabbar said.ddddddddddddIm sure hes finding that out. But the fact that hes persisting with it, Ive got to give him credit for it.Abdul-Jabbar also answered questions about his latest book, Writings on the Wall: Searching for a New Equality Beyond Black and White, a series of political essays from the perspective of an athlete, African-American and Muslim. He spoke about the current NBA, which has moved away from centers who played the position like he did in favor of 3-point-shooting big men.The 3-point shot isnt the answer to everything, he said. Everybody thought that small ball was going to dominate. You saw what happened to?Golden State?when they lost Andrew Bogut: They couldnt compete. So big guys still have a prominence in the game and a place in the game that has not been totally eliminated.Abdul-Jabbar said he never regretted finishing college, nor was he tempted by a reported $1 million offer to join the Harlem Globetrotters. He encouraged college athletes -- not just at Harvard but even at more traditional basketball powers -- to spend more time in school so they could learn the game.The longer that they stay here, the better that they will play, he said. If they stay in college for four years, thats the best way to achieve all that they want to achieve as basketball players. To try to jump to the NBA is not the way to go.It wasnt Abdul-Jabbars first trip to the Ivy League school on the Charles River. In 1972, already an NBA champion, he attended Harvard summer school to learn Arabic so he could learn more about his Muslim faith.It was a tough semester for me, but I learned it, he said, reporting that he got an A.With former Celtics Satch Sanders and M.L. Carr sitting in the back of the room, Abdul-Jabbar said the highlight of his career was beating the Celtics in Boston in the 1985 NBA Finals. At the time, the Lakers had never beaten the Celtics for the championship.Asked where he would rank his performance in the movie Airplane! among his accomplishments, Abdul-Jabbars competitive spirit emerged.Airplane! has done better than any movie that Shaquille [ONeal] has made, he said. Ill leave it at that. ' ' '