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We already know that the UFC has booked Urijah Faber vs. Michael McDonald as the co-main event of UFC on Fox 9 in California, but what could be the main event? Well according to UFC president Dana White, who was interviewed as part of the brand new UFC Tonight, he wants new lightweight champion Anthony Pettis to defend his belt against T.J. Grant in Sacramento. There is one hurdle to clear however, and that's the status of Grant's health:
Dana White wants Anthony Pettis vs. TJ Grant to headline UFC on FOX 9 on Dec. 14 in Sac. Pettis wants to do it, as well. However ...
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) September 11, 2013
... Grant told me today that his preference would be to fight in January, but once the UFC asks him to fight on 12/14 he'll consider it.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) September 11, 2013
As you may recall, Grant suffered a concussion while training for his title fight with Ben Henderson. Pettis, coming off his own minor injury that put him out of a featherweight title fight with Jose Aldo, was called up to rematch Henderson at UFC 164. It took merely one round for Pettis to pull off a stunning armbar win and become the new UFC lightweight champion.
There was talk -- some of it propagated by Pettis himself -- of doing Pettis vs. Aldo as Pettis' first title defense, but White shut that down and said Grant would get the next title shot. Grant (21-5) is 5-0 at lightweight and cemented his status among the elite with a 1st round annihilation of Gray Maynard.
In addition to a potential Pettis/Grant main event, White also wanted Chad Mendes on the card against an opponent TBD. I guess you could say that if all of this comes to fruition we have ourselves a fun night ahead of us courtesy of several former WEC fighters.
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