LAS VEGAS – Most times, a former champion in the UFC gets the honor of being the second fighter to walk out to the cage. It’s not automatic, but it’s typically a reasonably assured courtesy.

Saturday at UFC 226, former UFC and WEC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, though, was the first one to walk. The favored Michael Chiesa got to make the red corner walk. And being perturbed about that probably wasn’t something Pettis was going to admit going into the fight. But after an upset win, he confessed.

“I was already annoyed I was the underdog – blue corner again,” Pettis said. “I’m a former world champ, two times. I’m getting my respect back.”

Pettis (21-7 MMA, 8-6 UFC) submitted Chiesa (14-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC) with a triangle choke/armbar combo in the second round on the UFC 226 main card Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card aired on pay-per-view following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.

Pettis is No. 12 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA lightweight rankings; Chiesa was No. 9. And now, Pettis says he wants to start fighting opponents in the UFC’s top-five rankings so he can start making a climb back to title contention.

Pettis lost the UFC’s lightweight title to Rafael dos Anjos in March 2015, which set off a disastrous stretch of four losses in five fights – including what should have been an interim featherweight title bout that he couldn’t win the belt in after missing weight against Max Holloway.

Pettis lost to Holloway by knockout. He rebounded a year ago with a decision over Jim Miller, but was stopped in the third round by Dustin Poirier at UFC Fight Night 120 this past November. So the win over Chiesa to get back on track was huge.

“I just felt really confident in there again,” Pettis told MMAjunkie. It feels good to go in there with confidence. … If he took me down, it wasn’t a big issue. We had jiu-jitsu waiting for him, and that’s what showed in the fight.

“I just got tired of losing. I knew I was better than all these guys I’m losing against, and I just took myself out of my element. I couldn’t focus on the takedowns – it took away from my striking, it took away from my jiu-jitsu. We got away from it, and it shows in my results.

Pettis may be starting to get that swagger back – the kind he showed when he was living up to his “Showtime” nickname with a kick off the cage against Benson Henderson, a head-kick knockout against Joe Lauzon and a body-kick KO of Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. His finish of Chiesa, as unexpected as it may have been, earned him a $50,000 performance bonus.

But he’s not back in full. He just wants to get there, and thinks he’s right where he needs to be to get there soon.

“I’m not quite there – I feel like I’m right there,” he said. “My striking was a little timid still, and I feel like I can let loose a little more with my striking. … We’re right there. We’ve just got to keep working.”

To hear more from Pettis, check out the video above.

For complete coverage of UFC 226, check out the UFC Events section of the site.