Anthony Pettis: In my head I'm already the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world
UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis isn't shy whenever discussing his long term career goals, which include being one of the biggest stars in the sport as well as becoming one of the true kings of pay-per-view draws.
As exciting as Pettis has been in the Octagon, if there's been one missing element to his tenure with the UFC it's a rival to take him to the next stratosphere of popularity and attention.
UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones became one of the biggest stars in the sport during the lead-up to his fight against former teammate Rashad Evans. Ronda Rousey might be one of the most talked about fighters on the planet now, but she landed on everybody's radar while engaged in a heated war with Miesha Tate.
While rivalries and trash talking are always going to be a part of MMA, Pettis doesn't really feel a need to go down that road and he doesn't believe he needs anyone like that to push his career to the next level.
"I think you need these fights, these test fights. I don't need to hate somebody or have a rivalry with him," Pettis told FOX Sports on Thursday. "He's as tough as they come. He has great stand up, great jiu-jitsu, he's a tough guy so I'm expecting a war and then the fans get to see how good I really am. If they see me go out and knock guys out or submit guys in five or seven minutes, it's hard to tell how good I really am.
"Look at Anderson Silva -- you keep winning fights, people are going to know who you are."
Pettis says a rivalry is great, but at the same time it doesn't guarantee performance inside the Octagon and that's what he's focused on right now.
He looks at the recent UFC 183 main event between Jones and former Olympian Daniel Cormier as a prime example.
For as much as those two guys despised each other in the days, weeks and months leading into the fight, the end result wasn't really anything Pettis thought was worth watching.
"I don't want to have a rivalry just for fans to want to watch me fight. I want to put on a show. I want them to be like 'oh man, Anthony Pettis is fighting tonight, let's buy this pay-per-view, let's buy these tickets, he's going to put on a show' and they know when they come watch my fights they are going to get a show," Pettis said.
"I don't want it to be about 'oh these two guys are talking crap', that's getting old now. That's how it's always done. The more crap you talk, the more interesting the fight becomes. Look at Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones -- that was like the biggest beef of this year and I thought the fight was boring. I'm not looking to do that. I just want to have interesting fights because that's who I am."
What Pettis sees as his chance to become one of the biggest names in the sport is winning in the toughest and deepest division of them all.
The lightweight division has routinely been regarded as a snake pit with ranked fighters from No. 1 to 10 all capable of knocking off anybody in the weight class including the champion.
Pettis believes by ruling the lightweight division he'll prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he's not only the best 155-pound fighter in the world, but he should sit atop the mythical pound-for-pound rankings as well.
"In my head I'm already No. 1. I just got to prove it to the world now. The lightweight division is the toughest division in the world. As big as Ronda Rousey is -- all due respect -- her division she's dominating, she's a dominant champ, it's not a tough division where it's back and forth fights," Pettis explained.
"These guys are coming to bring it. This is the toughest, most talented, stacked division. To be the king of that and to run that division means something. Jon Jones deserves to be where he's at, he's killing it, no one seems to be even close to where he is. I have a year to plead my case to be the best pound-for-pound fighter."
