When Daniel Cormier was forced to withdraw from his planned light heavyweight title fight with Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, it left Saturday night’s UFC 206 without a main event. To rectify this situation, the UFC enacted a multi-part plan: First, they stripped Conor McGregor of the UFC featherweight title. Then they promoted interim featherweight champion Jose Aldo to undisputed champion. Finally they announced that UFC 206’s co-main event, a featherweight fight between Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis, had been promoted to the main event spot, where it would crown the new interim featherweight champion.
It was a fairly transparent effort to give fans in Toronto the title fight they wanted, and not everybody was impressed by it. In the end, however, this planned interim featherweight title fight will not actually occur, as Anthony Pettis failed to make the featherweight division’s 145-pound weight limit.
In the moments before Pettis took to the scale, Pettis’ coach Duke Roufus was able to confirm to BJPenn.com that his fighter would not make weight. Shortly thereafter, Pettis hit the scale, clocking in at 148, three pounds above the contracted weight of 145 pounds.
Despite Pettis’ weigh-in miss, precedent suggests Holloway might still be crowned the interim champion if he wins. At the time of this writing, however, it is not known if this will actually be the case.
Regardless, Holloway doesn’t seem pleased by this ugly twist.
I'm just having a good time they just trying to ruin it! #teamblessedmma #kuikahihawaii #ufc206 pic.twitter.com/icywfCzzS7
— Max Holloway (@BlessedMMA) December 9, 2016
Are you surprised that Pettis failed to make weight? Sound off, PENN Nation!