Anthony Pettis has not relinquished his goal of becoming lightweight champion again, and he believes a rematch against Tony Ferguson is the next step on his path back to gold.
Anthony Pettis has now won two consecutive fights at welterweight after defeating Alex Morono at UFC on ESPN: Thompson vs. Neal (UFC Vegas 17). But Pettis will now look to keep his win streak going in another division. Following the victory over Morono, Pettis expressed a desire to return to the lightweight division, the division in which Pettis was once world champion.
“I’m going back down to ’55,” Pettis said in his post-fight interview. “I felt amazing at 170, but my goal is at 155. Before I’m all said and done, I want to go back and get that belt.”
In the post-fight news conference, Anthony Pettis would give a specific name that he has in mind for his lightweight return, and it is a very familiar one.
“I think Tony makes sense,” Pettis said. “I think Tony Ferguson’s coming off his two losses. And he’s fighting tough dudes,” Pettis said. “I think that would be a good fight for me to jump back into the lightweight mix. He’s still right up there.”
Tony Ferguson defeated Anthony Pettis at UFC 229 in 2018 in a fight that was one of the top contenders for Fight of the Year. Ferguson is currently on a two-fight losing streak and is now ranked outside of the division’s top 3 for the first time in several years. Another fighter who was victorious at UFC Vegas 17, Michel Pereira, called for a fight against Anthony Pettis, but with Pereira being a welterweight and Pettis eying a rematch against Ferguson and a lightweight return, the latter match seems to be the only one possible.
Whom would you like to see Anthony Pettis fight next?
