For 15 months, the UFC Lightweight Champion was sidelined with a nagging injury and had to sit out for a long 15 months. Many people believed that Gilbert Melendez would beat Anthony Pettis as they felt that ring-rust would kick in and hinder the champion. On the pre-fight show, Michael Bisping and Kenny Florian picked Melendez to beat Pettis.
Pettis was tested in the first round by Melendez by getting pushed against the fence and taken down multiple times. Pettis was able to land strikes to Melendez to slow him down a bit. In the second round, Pettis showed better takedown defense and was able to land cleaner strikes that stunned Melendez and kept him guessing. Pettis then locked in a guillotine choke at 1:53 of the 2nd round to be the first person to ever finish Melendez. Pettis felt great to defend his title and is now willing to fight anybody to defend it again.
Khabib Nurmagomedov is 22-0 in the UFC and actually showed up at the post-fight press conference to call out the champion. Khabib has not fought since April and has recently had a knee injury that he has been nursing. Nurmagomedov has shown some of the best grappling that the lightweight division has ever seen and could possibly be a threat to Pettis if he heals up soon.
Rafael dos Anjos is going to fight Nate Diaz next this coming Saturday on UFC on Fox 13, and is coming off a stunning 1st round KO of former UFC Lightweight Champion Benson Henderson. If dos Anjos defeats Diaz, he will beat one of the best strikers in the division to go along with defeating one of the best wrestlers in Henderson. If Diaz wins, it is not exactly certain that he has done enough to challenge Pettis.
The winner of Myles Jury and Donald Cerrone could be an interesting threat to Pettis’ title. Jury has shown some of the best footwork in the division and is well-rounded in all aspects of the MMA game. Cerrone is one of the most brutal Muay Thai strikers in the division and has excellent submissions off of his back. Cerrone lost to Pettis via TKO in 2013, but has shown a lot of improvement since then and has gone 6-1 since that time. Jury and Cerrone will face each other at UFC 182.
Pettis is one of the most marketable champions with his flashy style, good looks and confident personality. This charm landed him a sponsorship with Wheaties, but it is truly the way he fights that puts fear in the UFC lightweight division. Whoever faces Pettis next has a tall task ahead of them.
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