A lightweight encounter between Justin Gaethje and Anthony Pettis is reportedly in the works for an event in early 2019.
That’s the word from ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, who says that negotiations are underway, but that there’s no specific date cemented as yet, other than being sometime in the early months of next year.
Gaethje got back to winning ways last time out against James Vick, taking just 87 seconds to knock him out back in August.
Before that, ‘The Highlight’ had come off second best in two thrilling fights against Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier by KO and TKO respectively – the first and only defeats of his 21-fight career to date.
Meanwhile, Pettis is also coming off a war with Tony Ferguson, which he lost at the end of the fourth round after his corner waved off the fight due to the damage he had sustained, including a broken hand.
Nonetheless, Pettis had given a good account of himself in the fight, which had come after a submission victory over Michael Chiesa prior to that.
Still, Pettis will now have to brace himself for what’s almost certain to be another hard-hitting battle with Gaethje, who lives and dies on his relentless and indeed at times reckless offensive approach to fighting.
