When Anthony Pettis’ injury forced him out of his highly anticipated featherweight title shot against Jose Aldo he immediately began angling for a shot at Ben Henderson’s lightweight title. Pettis told Fuel TV “I can be 100 percent ready to fight Benson Henderson in Milwaukee. With all due respect to T.J. Grant, Milwaukee is my town, and the fight with Ben is the fight everyone has wanted for years.”
Grant, who fights Henderson at UFC 164, told ESPN’s UFC Podcast that he didn’t appreciate Henderson’s behavior:
“I wish it was handled a little differently; him of all people, I think it was disrespectful, to do that against someone who has earned the right to fight is not right.”
“Unfortunately he got hurt but it was low class, I thought. I didn’t want to get into the whole talking thing. I got here legitimately and earned it. Ultimately, what he was saying was that he wanted my title shot which was incredibly disrespectful. It was pretty dirty.”
For as poor as many of the UFC title shots have been this year, this situation shows that there’s still an embarrassment of riches at the lower weights. Pettis vs. Aldo, Pettis vs. Henderson and Grant vs. Henderson are all fantastic fights.
But Grant is probably right that Pettis’ move was a little outside expected fighter-to-fighter behavior.