Dana White Confirms TJ Grant vs. Anthony Pettis for Lightweight Title
- After a whirlwind of injuries, card shifts, and late replacements, the past two PPV events have featured two title fights with opponents who weren’t originally booked.
Well the only person to not benefit from the event modifications was TJ Grant (21-5), who was forced out of the UFC 164 main event leaving a title shot against Benson Henderson open for Anthony Pettis (17-2) to walk through. Pettis made the most of that shot, submitting Henderson in the first round to become the new UFC lightweight champion and going 2-0 against Henderson.
Now, in a confirmed report by MMAFighting.com, UFC president Dana White has confirmed that TJ Grant will, in fact, be granted his lightweight title shot, except now it will be against Pettis at an unknown location. Kevin Iole is credited with tweeting the announcement first:
Dana White also went on to SportsCenter to update the public on Pettis’ injury status, revealing that Pettis sustained a grade II ankle sprain and will be out 7-8 weeks. A paltry break for Pettis as the fight will most likely take place in early 2014 as most of the remaining events this year have scheduled main events and with Grant telling MMAFighting.com that he wouldn’t be ready to fight before December.
As for the proposed ‘superfight’ between Pettis and UFC featherweight champion, Jose Aldo, if it is to someday come to fruition, then we may not hear serious talks about that bout well in to the second half of 2014.
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