Anthony Pettis vs. Gilbert Melendez will be a fantastic fight, but in this age of instant gratification, you and I both know that out of sight is out of mind. We won’t be seeing this fight until November or December, I don’t even know I’ll be alive by then. Thus, Anthony Pettis is holding up the division.
Yeah, that logic makes no sense.
Neither does the logic of the lightweights that believe Anthony Pettis is holding up the lightweight division, and in a recent article with MMAFighting, he calls out the division.
“I don’t think these guys are educated whatsoever, the TUF gig is something I didn’t choose to happen. The UFC chose that. I’m not going to say no to an opportunity like that. That signs me up for three months filming for that, so that’s why the fight got pushed back all the way. I could be ready to fight by August, at the latest. From now to August, if I started a training camp, I could be ready to go.
“But that’s what [the other lightweights] are supposed to do as well. The division needs to somehow keep themselves relevant. The main guy doing it, Ben Henderson, I beat him twice, so he can talk all he wants. He’s going to have to wait his turn. There’s a couple guys that can talk and I guess they deserve their shot, but at the same time, I was in the same position as them guys. I was talking and I was trying to make my case to get that title shot.”