On Saturday night, in the main event of UFC Nashville, Anthony Pettis shocked the world by knocking out two-time welterweight title challenger Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson in his UFC welterweight debut.
With his jaw-dropping defeat of Thompson in the books, Anthony Pettis suddenly stands out as one of the top contenders in the crowded UFC welterweight division.
In his post-fight interview with Daniel Cormier, Pettis announced that he plans to continue competing in the welterweight division, and called for a fight with Rafael dos Anjos, the man who ended his reign as lightweight champion in 2015.
Dos Anjos is currently booked for a scrap with Kevin Lee, but promptly answered Pettis’ callout on Twitter, accepting his challenge.
“I’ll take care of Lee first then I’ll see you Pettis,” he wrote. “Great win btw.”
Rafael dos Anjos also took a moment to explain why he was matched up with Kevin Lee instead of Santiago Ponzinibbio, who has recently called him out.
“People keep telling me to fight Ponzinibbio, I wanted that fight too but he turned down Till in London now UFC don’t want to give him anybody higher than him on the rankings,” he wrote. “Thats not my fault, i’m an employee and I follow orders.”
With his knockout over Stephen Thompson, Anthony Pettis rebounds from a wild loss to Tony Ferguson in the lightweight division. While he claimed post-fight that he plans to continue competing at welterweight, he also made it clear that he still has work to do at lightweight, even calling for a fight with the winner of next week’s Justin Gaethje vs. Edson Barboza fight.
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 3/24/2019.