Quick Quote: Anthony Pettis was tapped to replace Frankie Edgar at UFC 130
Posted on May 9, 2011, 09:56 PM by Joey Santosus"They were going to have me fight Maynard on that card. I said yes to that deal right away. I guess it turns out that it’s not going to happen. I’m back to fighting Guida. It sucks that he got injured, because it kinda puts the whole lightweight division back on standstill. - Heavy.com
It appears that top Lightweight contender Gray Maynard nearly got a chance to follow-up on his earlier remarks, suggesting that Anthony Pettis was nothing more than "one kick." According to "Showtime," he was approached and agreed to face Maynard in the main event of UFC 130 when division Champion Frankie Edgar was forced to withdraw due to a rib injury. Unfortunately, just days later it was revealed that Maynard had damaged his knee and would also have to pull out of the bout, putting Pettis back on course to face Clay Guida in the TUF 13 headliner.
Pettis was originally expected to challenge the winner of January's Edgar-Maynard II in a bout that would unify the UFC and WEC Lightweight titles. In a rare turn of events, however, a winner failed to emerge from the UFC 125 match-up, 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 the fight with Guida, a decision that has evidently paid off in light of the delay of Edgar-Maynard III.
Comments
I'm not saying Gray is faking this one but that is super ironic! How funny would it have been if Pettis put his foot in Maynard's mouth... Damn he dodged a big one not having to fight Pettis in my opinion.
I think if they ever fought, the fight would favor Maynard more than Pettis imo....Maynard would just take him down and keep him down...even tho Pettis can sub ppl from his back and his TDD has improved if this fight had gone down I would have had to gone with Maynard, wrestlers usually beat strikers
Gray would be favourite by a long way. His resume is far stronger than Pettis. People think of only one kick and not the all round game. pettis deserves the shot no doubt and has great potential but I think the draw and now the injuries has saved him from a bad loss. he now has plenty of time to sharpen his game and see how he fares against Guida who is one of the most improved LWs over the last year.
It sucks the trilogy fight is off at least for now. I would have liked to see how Pettis does against the top of the division and a dominant wrestler in Maynard. Still excited in his fight with guida!
Maynard pull out to secure the rubber match with Edgar , i dont think that is because he is scare of Pettis ( even if he should) , is just that he wants the title fight no matter what.
In a way im glad Pettis will fight Guida so he can have more time to improve even more, hes only going to get better so no matter if it is in 3 months or 1 year Pettis will be Champ!
I'm glad it didn't happen. I want Edgar vs Maynard to happen ASAP
damn it! i was really looking forward to that fight!
gilbert melendez and eddie alvarez will kick all there asses. the ufc does not have the best lightweight in the world til they pick up one of these guys. the ufc can't find any good matchups cause they been mismatching the lightweight division for the last five years. melendez is the best lightweight in the world.
How can you say that when edgar has beaten Bj twice the 2nd time very convincingly. Melendez and Alvarez both look quite good, particularly melendez, but until they have a scalp of BJs magnitude they cannot be regarded as better. My own opinion is Edgar is the #1 as no other LW has ever dominated BJ in such a fashion and his footwork is by far the best in MMA and the rest of his game is very solid.
melendez has beaten aoki, kawajiri, thompson, and alvarez has beaten guys that you probably don't even know cause you can't get your head out of dana's ass. there was mma before dana, and there will be when he's gone. if fact the best organizations aren't even ran by dana, only the richest. thats right your money in his pocket. bj is great, but let's face it, edgar has his number.
I am the first to aknowledge MMA outside of UFC, I have probably been watching alot longer than most people. without a doubt BJ Penn was the best LW on the planet and no one Melendez or Alvarez have beaten warrant as much kudos as Edgar's domination of BJ Penn. I am big fan of Melendez and really hope to see him against Edgar sometime or other top UFC fighters. I believe he has a great chance against whoever but until he has beaten an Edgar or a Penn or a Maynard I cannot for reasons of logic rank him higher.
PS: If you think I have my head up DWs azz you need to read some of my posts over the last year or two, I think he is an embarrassment to MMA and a joke of a president of a company, albeit successful with the way he conducts himself.
you kik azz dude.
you can say the same about Gil, and Eddie they have been fighting mis matched comp their entire careers.
First of all this is really unfortunate. However, as someone said before, it does seem suspect that Maynard backed out with an injury too after hearing of Edgar's injury(according to what I read). It's like he put the injury out there to avoid getting labeled the way Rashad Evans has been labeled(waiting around mistake). It seems that he didn't want to take chances and lose his title shot/rubber match. Oh well, back to the waiting game. All these fighters getting injured nowadays for big matches is getting annoying.
I think a belt undefended for over 6 months should be vacated with the previous holder guaranteed the next shot as soon as they are fit. Belts can become quite meaningless such as the Strikeforce and UFC HW belt as they are not defended often enough. Brock made it worthless when out injured and Strikeforce don't ever seem to have a title match though all that is changing with the tourny they are having.
I'm not picking on the HWs btw - any belt undefended for a length of time soon becomes meaningless other than for the formality and structure of the division. You could have potential champions showing better skills and fighting and beating top class fighters for a long time before the belt is around their waist when injury lay offs see a belt gathering dust.
I think the limit should be a year, to be fair for injuries, GSP defends his belt every 9 months on average. Cain is injured, now Edgar, Silva is really the only one that fights often enough. If the wait is going to be over a year, they should hold a interim champion.
I think the one year mark is actually how they do it. Meaning, if the champ is going to be sidelined for a year or more, they tend to issue an interim title. Problem is tho, is they get these rough estimates that might say the fighter will be out for six months, then that six months nears and they find out its going to be longer. At that point, its a little too late. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess.
A year is too long IMO. Look at Brock and now Cain. With successive injuries you can end up with a belt being fought for only once a year which then reduces it's validity as a statement of who is best.
People once again lookin past fighters. Pettis has to go through Guida before he can take a crack at anyone. IMO Pettis will have his hands full with Guida. hes got a hell of a chin and tons of heart. He'll end up breakin Pettis's spirit, doubt he could keep Guidas pase.
Why Pettis?... Miller deserves so much more credit than he gets.