“It is what it is.”
Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis have a main event to sell. The featherweights will take each other on at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre in a little over a week and they have some pay-per-views to push.
With Daniel Cormier’s UFC light heavyweight title defence against Anhony Johnson indefinitely postponed, Holloway and Pettis have been elevated to main eventers.
In order to keep the event’s PPV status, the promotion needed a title fight so they have made Holloway-Pettis for an interim 145lbs strap.
The two men took part in a 29-minute conference call, last night, and hardly shot the lights out. There is a clear, mutual respect but neither Pettis or Holloway gave much away in terms of fight predictions or weaknesses they were looking to target. They gave very little away in general.
“It is what it is” was a phrase constantly trotted out as ‘Showtime’ and ‘Blessed’ let a being promotional chance slip by.
Try as they both did to move on, one man’s name cropped up throughout the conference call – Conor McGregor [the former featherweight champion]. Holloway ducked and weaved a question about McGregor’s losing his 145lbs belt but Pettis was more forthcoming:
“Aldo had a great career before Conor McGregor.
“There’s a reason why Conor let this happen. If Conor really wanted to fight at 145 pounds again, he would’ve done it and defended his title.
“So it’s not up to Jose Aldo, it’s not up to Conor McGregor, it’s not up to me or Max who’s the undisputed champ. We’re just doing our job. We’re going out there and fighting these fights and trying to prove that we’re the best in the world. And if that guy [Aldo] is there and the opportunity is there, eventually all of us will take it.”
Holloway raised the pulses on one occasion though when he told reporters that Aldo, the new champ, needed to get his head straight and get his ‘f**king p*ssy-itis’ cured.
The number one draw to ever set foot in the featherweight division is gone and it does not look like he is coming back.
One hopes these two quality fighters put on a hell of a show at UFC 206. The talking isn’t getting us excited but these men are capable of fireworks.
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