UFC
Anthony Pettis says UFC approached him to face Gray Maynard at UFC 130 before Maynard bowed out
May 9, 2011 - 6:45:08 PM Anthony Pettis says UFC approached him to face Gray Maynard at UFC 130 before Maynard bowed out

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

News broke on Monday afternoon that this month's UFC 130 main event between Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar is off with both fighters suffering injuries while training for the fight, but according to one fighter, Maynard was at least considering the possibility of fighting through his knee injury.

It appears Edgar informed the UFC sometime recently about his rib injury, and according to the final WEC Champion Anthony Pettis, the UFC approached him about stepping in to face Maynard later this month.

"They were going to have me fight Maynard on that card," Pettis said in comments made to HeavyMMA. "I said yes to that deal right away. I guess it turns out that it's not going to happen. I'm back to fighting Guida. It sucks that he got injured, because it kinda puts the whole lightweight division back on standstill."

However, Maynard ultimately decided to not fight through the injury, and so Pettis remains on target to face Clay Guida at The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale the week after on June 4.

"For three or four days I thought I was going to fight on May 28 and now it's just killing me, so I'm going to take it out on Clay Guida."

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Penick's Analysis: That fight certainly would have allowed Pettis to stake a real claim for a title shot, but Maynard was probably smart in pulling out of the card himself with the title no longer on the line. It would have been the right fight for the UFC to make with Pettis scheduled to fight just a week later anyway, but unfortunately they weren't able to bring it to fruition. The lightweight division will simply be on hold a little while longer until Maynard and Edgar can settle their score.