Dana White: Anthony Pettis is two fights away from a title shot
Posted on June 2, 2011, 02:56 PM by Joey Santosus"That kid's in a bad position. He's supposed to be the next in line. All this craziness happens. [Edgar and Maynard] both get hurt, and it gets pushed back again. The first one is a draw, then they get hurt, and it gets pushed back again. But this is one of those things that happens in a sport like this. I respect [Pettis] for stepping up and taking on a tough guy like Guida, and he'll probably have to fight again before he gets a shot at one of those guys. Sucks for him. It's a shitty position for him to be in. - For more, visit FightersOnlyMagazine
It appears Anthony Pettis, who had previously been considered the division's number one contender, is now at least two fights away from a shot at the Lightweight strap. "Showtime" was originally expected to challenge the winner of January's Edgar-Maynard II in a bout that would unify the UFC and WEC titles. However, in a rare turn of events, the UFC 125 bout ended in a draw, setting up a third encounter between the two and leaving Pettis to wait in the wings. Eager to make his promotional debut though, the Roufusport product accepted a fight with Clay Guida, who he will face this Saturday night in the main event of the TUF 13 Finale.
Although UFC President Dana White offered no detail on who or what could be next for Pettis if he is able to get past "The Carpenter," names like Jim Miller and Gilbert Melendez come to mind, as both have made a solid case for their own crack at the UFC Lightweight belt. So what do you think LowKick'ers? Is the winner of Saturday's headliner deserving of a title shot?
Comments
Honestsauce i think AP will champ at some point
I agree he has the potential to be a champion, I don't think he's ready right now but give him a couple years and who knows what his potential is.
a couple of years? in a couple of years he will be unstoppable!
Pettis could beat Edgar right now! but since all this craziness happen
Pettis will have to wait , which on a way is a good thing because he can only keep improving.
His stand is already on another level , his wrestling looks solid and his bjj is good , but he can make both his wrestling and bjj reach the next level just like his striking, then he will be unstoppable!
But it does sucks the the belts ( WEC , UFC) wont be unified.
the thing is who would be next for Pettis after he beats Guida?
Bendo and Miller are already fighting, so maybe Melendez
that would still be a unified title fight!!
...calm down
Pettis against Melendez to unify those belts is an interesting concept. They should put that on the GSP/Diaz card. Might as well just throw in the Shields/Penn fight too. Stacked ****ing card!
pettis wont get past guida.
how could you think guida will beat pettis? the guy who got dominated by diego sanchez, the guy who got comletly destroyed by kenny florian and the guy who has been submitted 7 times in his pro carreer. id put any amount of money on pettis
Yea he is very young
yet nick diaz can come right in and fight gsp pathetic
Pettis was going to do the same thing but Edgar/Maynard went to a draw n now both r injured.....
its pathetic that you even said that, Pettis was scheduled to do the same exact thing before injuries happened
There is also a huge difference between diaz coming in for a shot and pettis getting one. Firstly they need diaz to challenge gsp cos the welter division is running out of people to challenge him and the result is always the same, whereas the light weight division is stacked and so many different fighters could be given the chance to fight with an honest chance of wnning. Also diaz is a huge draw, he has competed in ufc before and he has about twice the amount of fights that pettis has.
Who's next in line then?
Melendez? Or the winner of Henderson vs Miller?
I think Miller will get a title shot if he beats Bendo but don't see Bendo getting one for beating Miller prolly has to win 1 or 2 more fights after that
If they both win, I can see Pettis vs. Miller for number one contender status...
Yeah that's what I'm thinking.
It'd seem wrong to me for them to give Bendo a shot before Pettis unless Bendo beats him on the way to the shot.
Where does this leave Melendez then?
Pettis is next in line, what Dana is saying is that the Edgar vs Maynard rematch is a long ways off and after that the winner will still need to recover (from what will most likely be a brutal fight) so Pettis will be fighting twice in that time to stay active. Obviously he also needs to win but I don't see Guida being to much of a problem for Showtime.
I feel like Jim Miller gets a shot at the title before AP does. He's been in the organization longer and has been on a good streak. Its sad that all Miller wud have to do wud be throwin a kick off the fence and he'd a get a title shot quicker.
Personally I would love to see Melendez fight Edgar or Maynard, but it would be a ridiculously bad decision for the UFC to put on a champ vs champ fight in possibly there most stacked division this early on after the buyout. Fair enough Champ vs Champ in the Welterweight division where GSP has cleared house, but not in the lightweight division.
They have contenders lining up round the block in the UFC lightweight division, and if anything they need to keep Melendez in Strikeforce for as long as possible to keep interest there.
Pettis is still next in line... its just gonna take a while before the fight takes place... Dana does not want Pettis to "Rashad" his career and end up not fighting over a year. Both Maynard and Edgar are injured.. so they wont fight til fall.. after that the next title defense will probably be at the end of the year.. roughly 6 months from now... that's why Pettis is 2 fights away... he's gonna stay active! As every fighter should in a situation like this!
Pettis vs Miller would be awesome, Id love to see Miller get another crack at Gray or Edgar, hes a very active fighter, has a great attitude and I think he defiantly deserves more props than he gets
Wow that's terrible. This is the only thing that sense..... Pettis was getting a lot of publicity from the kick that it made sense to give him the title shot. Now that time is passing by the momentum off of the kick has faded and isn't as marketable. It does suck for Pettis but eventually I think he will be the number one contender.
How is the kick faded? Your still mentioning it?
It was not his kick that gave him the title shot in the first place... its his WEC belt that put him in the title contender position. Pettis had the option to "wait" for his shot but chose not to, he wants to stay active.
Faded for the casual fan. For the guy who only sees fight results on espn.
Before Pettis was going to have a title shot, now he has to work for it again
thats bs...winner of this fight should get the next title shot...
Pettis vs Guillard.
NOW THAT IS A FIGHT.
its pretty obvious wat dana is doing. he's gonna pair off the winner of the clay guida vs pettis fight with the winner of the miller bendo fight. thats my best guess at least.
thats BS
What if Pettis KOs Guida??? would be hard to justify him not getting a title shot then.
I like Pettis and I still remember that excellent fight with Bendo.
The LW division is superstacked, since two promotions have merged.
To tell you the truth, I am not that upset that Pettis or anyone else doesn't get an immediate title shot. The fights are going to be great in the LW division, and the non-title fights will probably be better than the title fights. So many great LWs are crowding the top of the ladder, we fans are in for a treat for the next two years.
Whether Pettis was champ or not, he would sitll have to fight the same top contenders. If Pettis is good enough, he will get that belt in good time.
Honestly, as bad as this is in terms of Dana promising Pettis the fight and then taking it away for no fault of Anthony's, it seems like Pettis getting the shot in the first place was more of a ploy to add legitimacy to the Lightweight division coming from the WEC over to the UFC. It was the only crossover division, and the title unificiation gave weight to the other two new divisions having their own legitimate UFC belts. In terms of streak, career record, and earning it in the most recent past, there are probably at least four or five guys in the UFC who deserve the shot more then Pettis for fighting many times in the UFC (which Pettis has yet to do) and beating far higher quality opponents. Jim Miller and Denis Siver come immediately to mind, not to mention Gil Melendez coming over from Strikeforce, now that we see that such a thing is possible. Feel bad for Pettis, fine, but this isn't unfair.
Well he's first gotta get past guida and he's a tough guy
If Pettis loses to Guida, I'm gonna feel so bad for him. What if Gilbert Melendez got a title shot before Pettis? That would be disgusting...I hope Pettis gets everything that he has earned and then some because of this terrible situation that he's been stuck in for the past few months.
Simple..give him Jim miller if he beats Henderson