Contributor: Josh Hall
I’m sure that upon reading the title, a lot of you do not like me right now. That’s OK. Just hear me out though, that’s all I ask.
At UFC 164 in Milwaukee Anthony Pettis made his dreams come true by winning the title in his hometown, breaking the arm of LW Champion Benson Henderson in the process. It was shocking end to Henderson’s title reign in a division dominated by close fights between the top guys. Fortunately for fans and the rest of the division, there will not be a rematch this time. Henderson will be out for a while rehabbing his arm, and having lost twice to Pettis he is going to have to work his way back up for another shot.
Now that we have no rematch talk for once, the division should open up with a litany of contenders at LW that Pettis has never fought. This is a great thing. Well, it should be a great thing at least…
In Pettis’s post-fight interview, he called out FW Champion and all around badass Jose Aldo. Don’t get me wrong, that fight has the potential to be an all-time classic, and I mean that literally. The cage seriously could implode from the sheer amount of talent and explosiveness with those 2 men in there together. This fight absolutely has to happen at some point. That is point is NOT now however.
Superfights are awesome, and this could be the best of the best in terms of a stylistic matchup. I do not deny that. But we have to look at the side effects and post fight aftermath to see the full effect of this fight. Lightweight and Featherweight are 2 of the most exciting divisions in the sport (WEC NEVER DIE), and they also have a great number of credible challengers that make for fresh title fights.
At FW, you have Ricardo Lamas, Cub Swanson (I think he has redeemed enough himself since his infamous WEC fight against Aldo), the Bang-infused Chad Mendes. Superfights become necessary once champions have cleared out their divisions, and Aldo has not yet.
Let’s look at LW now. There are so many options to fight Pettis it could make your head spin. TJ Grant has to be at the top of that list, but you also have Gilbert Melendez (assuming he takes care of Diego Sanchez- protip: he will), Josh Thomson, a suddenly surging Rafael Dos Anjos, or even former LW Champion Frankie Edgar, who would still be a top contender at LW if he elects to move back up with a new champion in the division. Where Aldo still has some work to do to clear out his division, Pettis has never even defended his title.
It has oft been said in combat sports that a fighter does not become a true champion until they successfully defend their title. I don’t agree with that exactly, but I certainly see a distinction between champions who can hold onto their belt after defending it against the best in the world and fighters who win the belt one fight and lose it in their very first defense. Pettis needs to establish that he is the former before superfight talks begin. A lot of talented fighters can and do win world titles, but only the greats can totally dominate a division. Jose Aldo is on that short list. Anthony Pettis has all the talent to get there, but he still has to actually do it first.
Now, let’s take a look at the logistical nightmare this fight would create for the UFC. First off, what weight do they fight at? The 
easy answer there is to say that you have it at a 150 pound catchweight, the midpoint between the 2 fighters’ weight classes. There are a couple of rather big problems there though. Your first problem is no matter who wins the fight you have a lame duck champion in the loser’s weight class. If Aldo handles Pettis, how well received would he be as a champion with 0 successful title defenses that is coming off a loss? In a GSP/Anderson Silva scenario (before the Weidman loss) that has been discussed to death, both men had already established themselves as dominant champions before anyone ever mentioned a superfight. A loss for either man would not have damaged his credibility as a champion.
OK, but it works if Pettis wins, right? Absolutely not. If Pettis defeats Aldo at a catchweight, it should not damage Aldo’s credibility as a champion, because that has been proven already. But what happens next at FW? I think it is pretty clear Anthony Pettis would be demanding a FW title shot at that point, and he would have a great case. That would leave us with Pettis/Aldo 2 for the FW title, and on the normal champion’s schedule that would be roughly 10 months to a year after Pettis won the LW title. You could be looking at an up to 18 month LW title reign for Pettis in which he never defends the title in the UFC’s most competitive weight class. That is no good.
That leaves us with only a title fight at either 145 or 155. No matter who wins that fight, two divisions get completely screwed, because now there is going to be half the number of title opportunities at both FW and LW. The champion of both divisions cannot just start fighting twice as much all of a sudden, and that is not even factoring in the reality that Aldo and Pettis both have a history of being injury prone. Having anyone holding 2 belts in the UFC simultaneously sounds really awesome, but it can only happen at the expense of the top contenders in both of the weight classes.
Anthony Pettis could vacate the LW title to go down to 145 and fight Aldo for the title there, but that would be awful for the UFC and I can’t imagine they would allow it. Why would they give a guy another title shot when he didn’t defend the title he literally just won? The LW title might not be the best drawing one in the UFC, but there is less than zero chance of getting fans into it than letting them see the champ toss the belt away like a piece of garbage. Whoever the new champion might be, they will not be respected as a champion, because the real champ would be fighting at 145.
The only way I could even begin consider Aldo as a good next opponent for Pettis is if he decides now is the time to make the permanent move up to LW and vacates the FW title in the process. If Aldo decides he wants to go up to 155, in my opinion he almost has to immediately fight for the title. He is on the very short list of UFC fighters whose accomplishments are good enough to just walk into a new division and fight for the belt, no questions asked. Speaking of that…
Anthony Pettis more or less implied the LW division is beneath him by calling out a fighter in a different weight class. It has no shortage for contenders, and yet Pettis wants a superfight instead. While this might be good for him personally, it is nothing but disrespectful to the guys who are worthy contenders. A champion’s responsibility is to defend their title first and foremost, and it does not look like Pettis has much interest in doing that. But sadly, this isn’t the first time Pettis has shown blatant disregard for the fact that other fighters exist in the division.
Anthony Pettis was not the #1 contender in the LW division, and only got his title shot because of an unfortunate injury to TJ Grant. But before Grant was injured and after the contract was signed for him to fight Henderson, Pettis actually had the audacity to ask for Grant to be removed from the title fight because he wanted it. Funny enough, he would have had it from the get go, but decided to voluntarily give up his status at LW to go challenge Jose Aldo (despite having never fought before in the division). After his own injury caused him to pull out of the Aldo fight he saw nothing wrong with asking for the contract between Henderson and Grant to be broken just to suit his whims.
He tried to steal TJ Grant’s title shot. There is no way to sugar coat that. Now he is the champion, Grant is the #1 contender, and he just tried to steal TJ Grant’s title shot again. These men need to fight. TJ Grant earned his title shot, and as the champion it is Pettis’ responsibility to fight the top contender available. It is the right thing to do, and the logical thing for the UFC to do for the good of the FW and LW divisions. Book it guys. Please and thank you.
-Josh can be reached at [email protected] or @jhall282.
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