Anthony Pettis: ‘155 is my home and I’ll get that belt soon’

UFC lightweight Anthony Pettis has cleared up the rumor of him dropping down to the UFC featherweight division to fight Jose Aldo, and he did so via his official Facebook fanpage yesterday:

I’m not dropping to 145 to fight aldo! 155 is my home and I’ll get that belt soon!!!

The rumor was floated on the “UFC Tonight” show that airs on FUEL TV earlier this week by Ariel Helwani. The move was clearly discussed, but no concrete reason was given on why Pettis and his camp chose to stay in the lightweight division.

The former WEC lightweight champion defeated Joe Lauzon via head kick KO in the first round of their fight at UFC 144 last month in Japan. UFC President Dana White had stated that Pettis was ‘most likely’ going to get the next shot at the lightweight title that’s currently held by Ben Henderson.

The same fighter that Pettis narrowly defeated to obtain the WEC lightweight crown back in 2010. Henderson was able to snatch the UFC lightweight title away from Frankie Edgar via unanimous decision with that fight also taking place at UFC 144.

The UFC announced that Frankie Edgar will get an immediate rematch with Henderson sometime this summer. So Pettis will likely take another fight and if victorious, will then fight for the title in his next bout. This was in line with what I was thinking shortly after his win at UFC 144. I thought Pettis needed one more quality win before being granted a title shot.

The perfect fight would be against Clay Guida who defeated Pettis in his UFC debut. Guida is coming off a loss to Henderson and is regarded as a top ten lightweight. If victorious, he would avenge his only defeat in the UFC and take out a quality opponent at the same time.