Anthony Pettis dropped his UFC lightweight title to Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 185 and denies he's already looking ahead to his next bout. But if you ask he has a potential opponent in mind. Pettis was Ariel Helwani's guest on the MMA Hour this week and revealed who that might be.
"I haven't thought about who I want to fight next. I can't even say when I can fight next. But I would love to fight Nate Diaz. That's a fight I've been waiting for, for a long time. If that's next, I'm for sure down with that. I just gotta figure out when I'm able to fight again or when I can start even looking at dates to fight again," Pettis told Helwani.
However Pettis is emphatic that Diaz is not his top priority. He wants to avenge himself on Rafael do Anjos, the man who took his title.
"I want to clear that before I get a title shot," Pettis said. "That's just more of a personal thing. He's the only guy that ever beat me up in my whole career, my whole life."
"There's a lot of guys I gotta fight," Pettis said. "Now that I suffered this loss, I'm sure everybody thinks they want their shot at me, they want to take advantage of this. But it's my job to get back out there and get back to the top. I think a couple more wins and I'll be right back to where I was at."
Pettis has some history with Diaz and his teammates at Cesar Gracie Jiu Jitsu. Pettis beat Diaz teammate Gilbert Melendez in December, 2014 and has talked about a 2013 confrontation in Las Vegas between his Roufus Sport team and the Diaz/Melendez Cesar Gracie camp.
In addition, Diaz has been a persistent critic of Pettis on social media, like this tweet below in response to news of the injuries suffered by both Pettis and RDA in their five round title bout.