When Anthony Pettis steps into the cage for the first time in 15 long months on Saturday at UFC 181, he’ll be facing down more than just opponent Gilbert Melendez, the former Strikeforce champion who is looking to write his own name in the UFC’s record book. In Melendez’s shadow, another man lurks—his spirit and reputation still engulfing the entire lightweight division.
Pettis fights not just to secure his UFC Lightweight Championship but against the legend of future Hall of Famer B.J. Penn.
Slow down, I can hear you thinking. Pettis, after all, hasn’t even defended his UFC title a single time. All-time great? Really?
The stakes, surprisingly, are just that high.
With just a handful of solid wins, Pettis could write his name next to Penn’s, staking his claim as the best 155-pound fighter in MMA history. That says plenty—both about Penn’s overwhelming presence in the division for years and just how good Pettis can be.
But, despite his obvious and at times mesmerizing skill, doubt has attached itself to Pettis like a shroud. His ability just to make it to the fight has been called into question—and perhaps rightfully so. Since his famous “Showtime kick” helped him beat Benson Henderson for the WEC championship in 2010, Pettis has only stepped into the Octagon five times.
“I’ve been through a lot in my life, and I believe I’m mentally very strong,” Pettis told Bleacher Report’s Duane Finley. “There isn’t much that can faze me mentally. But it’s hard, man. Seeing all of these people advancing their careers and winning these fights and I’m stuck on the sidelines. It’s just one of those things you just have to get through, and I had to get through it. Once you do that, the great things come.”
While it’s hard to carve out a place in fans’ hearts and atop the pound-for-pound list—where Pettis currently sits in the sixth position on the UFC’s official rankings—without, you know, fighting, Pettis’ skills are so overwhelmingly obvious he’s managed to do so anyway.
His physical tools are plain—speed, quickness and a long, lanky build. Less obvious, Bloody Elbow striking expert Connor Ruebusch explains, is that Pettis’ success is predicated on his smarts every bit as much as his athletic prowess: “Cagecraft, generalship, Octagon control—whatever you call it, Pettis understands it. Much like highly hyped UFC neophyte Conor McGregor, Pettis is equally adept at playing the counter fighter and the aggressor. When he is on the prowl, his understanding of the cage is unrivaled.”
Physical skill alone won’t be enough to stop Melendez, one of the division’s toughest outs for more than a decade. A classic wrestler-boxer, the Cesar Gracie product is capable of taking a slick finesse fighter and grinding him into the mat for 25 long minutes.
There’s some fear of that, surely, in the back of Pettis’ mind. After all, Clay Guida, a kind of lesser Melendez, did something similar to the champion in his first UFC fight.
That loss, however, was more than three-and-a-half years in the past. In the meantime, Pettis has spent plenty of time on the mat with Olympian Ben Askren, improving his wrestling defense and ground game by leaps and bounds.
That much was obvious in his title win over Henderson. The former champ was thought to be the better grappler going in, but Pettis was able to consistently stymie Henderson’s wrestling attacks against the fence. When Henderson did manage to leap on top of his challenger after a slip, Pettis exacted the ultimate revenge—an armbar submission from the bottom.
Pettis believes he can fend off Melendez’s takedowns as well. And, if he does, the fight will be contested in his wheelhouse, where he expects his more multifaceted approach to pay serious dividends against a fighter who has focused almost entirely on his hands.
“I think he’s very basic when it comes to stand-up,” Pettis told Damon Martin of Fox Sports. “He’s got decent boxing, and he’s tough. That’s most Mexican fighters; they are the most exciting fighters, they are tough and have good boxing. Unfortunately for him, that’s my zone. If he wants to stand in there and trade, he’s not going to see me having a Diego Sanchez fight, I’ll tell you that. I think I outclass him in the striking like he’s a beginner.”
If Pettis can back up that boast, it would be the kind of resume item that would help him make a strong case historically in the lightweight division. In a career spanning 12 years, much of it spent competing against top competition, Melendez has never been stopped.
If Pettis can pull it off, in that trademark spectacular Pettis fashion, it’s time to start talking about more than just a run-of-the-mill title defense. It’s time to, once again, dust off the superfight with featherweight champion Jose Aldo and let Pettis, finally, make his case for immortality.
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