Anthony Pettis: I Would Have Finished Ferguson If Hand Didn’t Break

At UFC 229, Anthony Pettis and Tony Ferguson took part in one of the best fights of the 2018 in the co-main event. For two rounds, Ferguson and Pettis went to war, but after the second round, the Pettis corner called for a cease fire due to an injury (broken hand) sustained by Pettis. Had the fight continued, Pettis believes that we would be talking about a different ending today.

“That fight was so close,” Pettis told BJPenn.com of the UFC 229 co-main event. “If I hadn’t broken my hand, I would have finished that fight,” Pettis said to BJPENN.com. “If you watch the fight again, the second over hand right I turned it over like a dummy and it hit that one knuckle. I got him on the ground, and he did a little front roll and then I couldn’t use my right hand. I was holding it against his shoulder and tried to throw it once and I’m like ‘oh this feels uncomfortable.’ That is why he got up is because I had no grip.”

The UFC 229 co-main event was a lightweight bout with heavy implications for the future of the lightweight division and the career of Anthony Pettis. With the victory, Tony Ferguson is now presumably next in line to challenge Khabib Nurmagomedov for the lightweight championship. As for Pettis, he is now exiting the lightweight division to try his hand at welterweight. When asked if Pettis would have moved up to welterweight to face Stephen Thompson had he got the finish of Ferguson, Pettis could not provide a definitive answer.

“I don’t know. I know were my skill-set is at,” Pettis said. “That fight I got five weeks notice. They called me five weeks out and said ‘hey you want to fight Ferguson.’ I’m like ‘hell yeah.’ Like I’m not afraid to fight anyone in that division. I feel like I gave the fans what they wanted but I couldn’t catch the break I needed. I was right there and my hand breaks.”