Earlier this morning, news broke that Anthony Pettis had missed weight for his interim featherweight title fight with Max Holloway, which was scheduled to serve as the main event of Saturday night’s UFC 206.
Now that the dust of Pettis’ unfortunate weigh-in miss has settled, the UFC has announced how it will proceed with the bout.
Having missed weight, Pettis will no longer receive the interim title if he defeats Holloway. As a former UFC lightweight champion, his winning this title would have made him the fourth fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two weight classes, alongside Randy Couture, BJ Penn, and Conor McGregor. As such, this is all bound to sting quite a bit for him.
Pettis will also forfeit 20% of his purse for this weigh-in miss.
These updates come from ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, who spoke to UFC President Dana White in the wake of this ordeal.
Per Dana White, it is still an interim title fight for Max Holloway.
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) December 9, 2016
Told Pettis forfeits 20 percent of his purse for missing weight.
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) December 9, 2016
While Pettis will no longer have the opportunity to win interim featherweight gold, Holloway will still win the belt if he comes out on top. In sum, the only thing that changes with respect to this fight is that Pettis has lost his chance to become the interim featherweight champion.
In addition to this strange main event, UFC 206 will also feature a welterweight bout between fan favorites Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and Matt Brown. The bout will mark Cowboy’s chance to move to 4-0 as a welterweight, and Brown’s chance to rebound from a KO loss to Jake Ellenberger. Other highlights of the card include a middleweight bout between Tim Kennedy and Kelvin Gastelum, a featherweight bout between Cub Swanson and Doo Ho Choi, a welterweight bout between Emil Meek and Jordan Mein, and a light heavyweight bout between Nikita Krylov and Misha Cirkunov.
How do you feel about this card? Will you be watching? Sound off, PENN Nation!