UFC walking highlight reel Anthony Pettis is set to take on Jose Aldo on Aug. 3 for the UFC featherweight title. The fighter was originally scheduled to take on the winner of the Ben Henderson/Gilbert Melendez fight that’s set for UFC on FOX 7 in April.
However, Pettis sent a text to UFC President Dana White after Jose Aldo successfully defended his featherweight title against former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar at UFC 156 on Saturday night. In the video below Pettis talks about how the fight came about and why he thinks Aldo is a tougher fight than Ben Henderson:
Pettis stated that he believes Aldo is the tougher fight and that he had already beaten Ben Henderson. The latter is true but that fight took place over two years ago with Henderson being a vastly different and much improved fighter nowadays. The fact of the matter is that stylistically Aldo is much easier to prepare because he’s primarily a striker. It’s true that he can take opponents down, and is well versed in submissions but most of his offensive output comes via striking.
Ben Henderson is bigger than Aldo, can strike, and also does a much better job of mixing in his wrestling and heavy ground and pound style. He also has shown better cardio than Aldo in his past couple of fights. What’s the one major weakness Pettis has in his game?
Takedown defense.
Now, I’m sure he’s worked on his takedown defense non-stop since his ugly decision loss in his UFC debut against Clay Guida. However, to say that Aldo is a tougher fight is stretching it a bit to say the least because Henderson tends to mix things up much more than Aldo.