After yesterday’s look at Carla Esparza, Joanna Jedrzejczyk and the women’s strawweight division, it’s time for UFC Title View to focus in on the lightweight ranks, beginning with the champion and the man that challenges him this weekend at UFC 185 in Dallas.
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UFC Title View: Lightweight Division
The Champion
Anthony Pettis
Record: 18-2 (5-1 UFC)
Won Title: UFC 164 (August 31, 2013)
Successful Title Defenses: 1 – defeated Gilbert Melendez (Submission, R2) at UFC 181
Pettis’ last two appearances showed why he’s such a dangerous fighter and potentially dominant champion as he won and retained the lightweight belt by capitalizing on the one small mistake his opponents in those two outings made and secured the victories.
Against Benson Henderson at UFC 164, “Showtime” snatched up an armbar when “Smooth” gave him an inch, forcing his former WEC rival to tap. Against Gilbert Melendez at UFC 181, it was more of the same, as Pettis weathered the early storm and clipped the former Strikeforce champion when he got a little loose with his striking. As Melendez shot in for an “I’m rocked and need to recover” takedown, the opportunistic Duke Roufus disciple locked up a guillotine choke and drew the tap from “El Nino.”
That ability to create openings and chances to finish fights is one of the many things that makes Pettis the kind of fighter that could enjoy a lengthy reign atop the dangerous lightweight division. Whether it’s his striking or his submission game, the 28-year-old titleholder always seems like he’s able to find a way to swing the fight in his favour and give himself a chance to get the finish. Few fighters are capable of doing that every time they step into the cage and Pettis makes it look easy, even when he’s doing something ridiculous like propelling himself off the fence to land a knee to the body against Donald Cerrone.
Pettis’ creative will continue to give him an edge over the competition as well because it’s impossible to prepare for the array of offense that is going to be coming at you once you step into the cage with the reigning lightweight champion. When he’s being the aggressor, Pettis keeps you guessing and that hampers a fighter’s ability to establish their own rhythm and flow. What makes the challenge of dethroning him even harder is that he might be even better when he’s looking to counter and letting his opponents dictate the pace and tempo because the power/speed combo he presents in the striking department means he’s able to wait for an opening and turn a fight on a dime with the right shot.
The one ever-so-slight question mark that remains with Pettis is his takedown defense.
While he’s certainly shored things up since losing his UFC debut to Clay Guida, getting inside and forcing Pettis to fend off takedown attempts still appears to be the preferred way to try to beat the Milwaukee native. Melendez had some success by backing Pettis into the cage and making him defend and it’s one of the many reasons that a potential fight between the champion and unbeaten grappler Khabib Nurmagomedov holds so much interest. It’s a part of the fabric of Saturday’s fight too as dos Anjos has shown an ability to ground strikers in the past and grind out wins when he needs to.
That being said, we’ve seen tremendous improvement from Pettis in this area over the last three years and change and if the only knock against him is that he doesn’t have perfect takedown defense, that’s pretty good. His diverse and dangerous striking repertoire and underrated submission game could keep him on atop the lightweight division for a long time and even if he does get forced from the throne, he won’t ever be too far removed from contention.
The Challenger
Rafael dos Anjos
Record: 23-7 (12-5 UFC)
Last Win: defeated Nate Diaz by Unanimous Decision (UFC on FOX 13)
There might not be a fighter in the UFC that stands as a better testament to growth, development and the importance of training with an elite team than dos Anjos.
When the Brazilian title challenger began his career in the big leagues, dos Anjos looked like a solid addition to the lightweight ranks, but not someone that was going to challenge for top honours in the division. He was excellent on the ground, but his entries on takedowns weren’t anything special and his striking was good, but nothing that really made you take notice. He lost his first two fights and was an even 3-3 after his first six appearances, beating lower tier talents, but struggling against anyone of real substance.
Everything started to change with his fight against George Sotiropoulos at UFC 132. He had moved to California and started training with Master Rafael Cordeiro at Kings MMA on a permanent basis, and the improvements in his striking were readily apparent. A minute into the bout, dos Anjos dropped the Aussie with a counter right hook that snapped across his jaw. Sotiropoulos was out and the Brazilian had arrived as an interesting fringe contender.
Since then, dos Anjos has only continued to improve. He’s added some muscle and tightened up his striking even more, becoming a truly well-rounded mixed martial artist. His wrestling is far superior to where it was when he debuted against Jeremy Stephens and his jiu jitsu remains as dangerous as anyone in the division, even if we haven’t seen it as much in recent bouts. He is absolutely a worthy title challenger and a legitimate top tier talent in the lightweight division.
Can he beat Pettis? Absolutely he could – we’ve seen dos Anjos surprise in the underdog role in the past (Sotiropoulos, Benson Henderson) and he had tremendous success using his grappling to nullify the striking of Donald Cerrone when they fought two years ago. While Pettis is on a different level than “Cowboy” – or at least where “Cowboy” was at that time – the fact that dos Anjos has shown an ability to neutralize strikers and grind out wins along the fence and on the ground should serve him well heading into Saturday’s main event.
Do I think he’s going to beat Pettis? No, but I do believe this is going to be a much closer fight than most people envision. Of course, I said the same thing of Ronda Rousey and Cat Zingano and that lasted 14 seconds, so who knows.
The Contenders
Any conversation of the contenders in the lightweight division has to start with Khabib Nurmagomedov (22-0, 6-0 UFC). The 26-year-old standout holds a win over dos Anjos and is the consensus No. 1 contender, but a knee injury forced him to go under the knife and put him on the sidelines, allowing dos Anjos to jump to the head of the line. Nurmagomedov is scheduled to return in May and – as mentioned above – is the most intriguing stylistic matchup for Pettis given his outstanding grappling skills. He controlled dos Anjos throughout their 15-minute fight last April and set a record for takedowns when he faced Abel Trujillo at UFC 160, rag-dolling the former NAIA All-American around the Octagon.
Standing between Nurmagomedov and a title shot in May will be Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone (27-6, 14-3 UFC), who has rattled off seven consecutive victories since November 2013 and appears to have found his happy place. The long-time Team Jackson-Winkeljohn representative and owner of the BMF Ranch (I’ll let you figure it out) has been on-point for much of the last year-and-a-half since losing to dos Anjos. Save for his questionable decision win over Benson Henderson, Cerrone has handled his business against a string of very good fighters to put himself one win away from fighting for UFC gold.
As much as people would like to write him off, you can’t forget about Benson Henderson (22-5, 10-3 UFC), who rebounded from his loss to Cerrone with a fourth-round submission win over Brandon Thatch in his welterweight debut a month later. Just this past weekend, “Smooth” was lobbying for the opportunity to step up against Erick Silva when Ben Saunders was scratched from his bout with the Brazilian next weekend. Because he had a string of close, coin-flip fights, people want to dismiss Henderson as a viable threat in the division, but he’s only lost three times inside the Octagon – once to the champion, once to the man challenging him this weekend, and once to one of the two men battle to be next in line. That’s not too shabby and if the MMA Lab product gets a couple good wins under his belt (in any weight class), he’ll be right back in the mix.
Michael Johnson (16-8, 8-4 UFC) put himself in the contender conversation with a one-sided decision win over Edson Barboza last month in Brazil, returning from nearly a year on the shelf to pick up his fourth consecutive victory. While he’s the one man on this list without a truly marquee win, that’s the only thing keeping him from already being considered for a title fight. That being said, if he gets his wish for a date with Henderson, a victory there would propel him onto the short list of potential championship challengers. Johnson has good power and outstanding footwork when striking, paired with solid wrestling and a good amount of swagger. He’s righted the ship after back-to-back losses earlier in his UFC run and looks poised to become a legitimate threat in the lightweight division going forward.
The Ones to Watch
There is no shortage of emerging talent in the lightweight division, so let’s do one Top 15 fighter that is one the rise, one fighter that is closing in on the Top 15, and another fighter with a couple wins under his belt and a ton of upside.
Al Iaquinta (11-3-1, 6-2 UFC) has won three straight to crack the Top 15 in the lightweight division, and if not for a brief, but costly mental lapse against Mitch Clarke, the Serra-Longo Fight Team member would be riding a seven-fight winning streak and would probably be on the above list of contenders and not hanging out here. That being said, the loss was actually a good thing for “Ragin’ Al” because it showed him that he can’t take guys lightly or lose focus in a fight and he’s looked crisp since, blasting his way through Rodrigo Damm, Ross Pearson and Joe Lauzon to set up an April bout with Jorge Masvidal that will likely propel the winner into the Top 10.
Gilbert Burns (9-0, 2-0 UFC) had the fight he needed to win to break into the Top 15 all lined up for later this month – a co-main event showdown with former Strikeforce champ Josh Thomson – but then “The Punk” got hurt and was forced to pull out, leaving “Durinho” to face a relative unknown and wait a little longer. A gold medalist at the 2011 Mundials and a two-time world champion in no gi jiu jitsu, the Team Blackzilians representative is a fierce grappler with developing hands and a ton of room to grow as a mixed martial artist. The fact that he works with an elite team and is world class on the mats bodes well for him though, as he has the pieces in place to become a force in the division in the future.
Jake Matthews (8-0, 2-0 UFC) is a 20-year-old that everyone should be watching. “The Celtic Kid” was part of Team Australia on TUF: Nations and has earned a pair of stoppage wins since returning to the Octagon after departing the show. He’s built like a truck and looks like a plus athlete from the way he moves in the cage, so the sky is the limit for the young Aussie.
It will be interesting to see if he opts to keep training at home or makes the move to the US in order to maximize his opportunities. While he’s being brought along slowly and has only fought on “hometown cards” thus far, he’ll eventually get a significant step up in competition and a fight outside of Australia/New Zealand, which will be the big test of where he’s at. Personally, having talked to him a few times, I can tell you that I think he’s got the mental makeup to be a champion one day – just a driven, motivated kid that knows what he wants and understands everything that has to go into accomplishing his dreams.
