Anthony Pettis: I will not cut weight and move down the division to fight Jose Aldo – UFC news
Anthony Pettis, the former World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) lightweight champion, broke his silence and texted on his twitter account his firm determination to stay at the current lightweight division and brushed aside the chance of a brawl against Jose
Aldo, the current UFC featherweight champion.
Anthony Pettis, the proud owner of the unique submission ‘Showtime Kick’, is considered as an ace belligerent in the lightweight division of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The young Milwaukee fighter has enjoyed an impressive and intimidating career.
Anthony, 25, has been in a total 17 bouts and came out victorious in 15. He has lost just two bouts to Clay Guida and Bart Palaszewski. Pettis has put forth the mixed martial art universe some epic bouts like the championship skirmish with Ben Henderson.
Well known as ‘Showtime’, Anthony entered the WEC octagon to challenge Ben for his lightweight gold and collected his career’s huge win by delivering a swift almost invisible spin kick that to Ben’s head which was later on dubbed as the ‘Showtime Kick’.
The 25-year-old fighter recently fought against Joe Lauzon in a pay-per-view that was headlined by the lightweight championship bout between Frankie Edgar and Ben Henderson.
Interestingly both, Ben and Anthony, won their respective bouts which provoked the critics to speculate Pettis as Ben’s next opponent. But this did not happen and Anthony was unable to get an engagement with Ben. Things went up and down for the former champion
and Frankie eventually became the man who got a rematch against Ben.
It must be kept in mind that after Frankie’s loss, UFC President Dana White was pretty clear that Edgar must move down to the featherweight division and take on Jose Aldo. But Frankie thumbed down the advice and took a stiff stance of taking on Ben again,
one more time.
Frankie’s wish was fulfilled but Anthony remained in doldrums and everyone was thinking as to what now awaits for the surging top lightweight. It is this reason why critics started to predict that Anthony might move down the division. The buzz got strong
when Anthony’s manager remarked that Pettis might accept the bout if ‘it has the right terms’.
Anthony after hearing all this finally commented on his twitter account, “I’m not dropping to 145 to fight aldo! 155 is my home and I’ll get that belt soon!!!” Pettis is almost right in his one-liner since it is a tough thing to move down and lose almost
10 pounds at the same time.
UFC’s history is filled with such brawlers who moved down the division by losing their weight substantially as a result they were unable to perform well. At the moment Anthony is still vacant and after the current remark, it is uncertain who Pettis’ next
opponent might be.
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