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Anthony "Showtime" Pettis has had a mixed bag of a year. Financially, it's been great as he's main evented a Fight Night and had a big payday against Nate Diaz in the latter's return fight.
His first fight of the year saw him make a change to the Welterweight Division, where he faced Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson. He would beat Thompson decisively with a knockout punch, and after the fight, he claimed that he felt better than ever at Welterweight.
He was, however, beaten by Nate Diaz later that year by unanimous decision, and as of now, we're not sure whether Pettis plans to stick to 170 or go back down to 155.
What we do know, however, is that Pettis has been called out by a certain Lightweight. The #14 ranked Alex Hernandez, who came off a victory against Francisco Trinaldo 4 months ago has called out the former Lightweight Champion and gave him a timeframe of three months to get it together and show up to the Octagon:
While it is undoubtedly an interesting match-up, the excitement levels may not be as much as Hernandez would hope. The biggest spotlight he was in recently was earlier this year when he trash-talked his way to a KO defeat to Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone. He became the subject of ridicule among the MMA fanbase after that, but he bounced back in July for a narrow victory.
Pettis likely doesn't have much of an incentive to fight a #14 ranked Lightweight, especially since we're not even sure as to whether he's going back down or not. He probably feels a lot better at Welterweight without the weight cut and has a lot of strong competition he can go up against that will advance his rankings.
Until then, Hernandez will have to work his way up too.
