Last night at The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale, Clay Guida controlled Anthony Pettis for most of the fight and was able to slow down Pettis’ UFC lightweight title hopes.
With Guida controlling him on the ground, Pettis found no answer to his wrestling and couldn’t get it done with his striking, even with yet another “Showtime kick” that couldn’t find it’s target.
But with his loss to Guida, is Pettis able to fight back into the UFC lightweight title picture?
The division is so backed up, and it was just announced today that, in fact, Jim Miller would be getting the next shot at the title. Barring some sort freak draw—again—Miller will either face Gray Maynard or Frankie Edgar sometime late this year or early in 2012.
So this long wait for these two bouts to finish gives Pettis enough time to rack up two or three wins before the title shot is actually up for grabs yet again.
Pettis is young at the age of 24, and has plenty of time to fight his way back to the top of the UFC ranks. Pettis can rack up wins against the other fighters who are close to getting title shots like Melvin Guillard and Dennis Siver and possibly have a rematch with Ben Henderson sometime soon.
Pettis has some very good skills, including his creative striking and good guard that seems to be the best in the lightweight division.
The former WEC champion is young and still improving. The fact that he even uses the cage as a way to land his strikes is new and helpful in his fights.
So for now, his title hopes are on hold, but Pettis still has a long career ahead of him and could definitely fight his way back into title contention.
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