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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Donald Cerrone will return to his hometown of Denver, Colo. on Saturday night, but his fight with Melvin Guillard is certainly not the first name Cerrone had in mind. The man Cerrone's been calling out as of late is former WEC Champion Anthony Pettis, but an injury to Pettis, which required surgery this summer, has kept him out of action since he knocked out Joe Lauzon in February.
That hasn't stopped Cerrone from claiming Pettis is ducking him, or from making disparaging remarks about the man who defeated the current Champion Ben Henderson when Cerrone could not. That continued on Thursday, as Cerrone made more negative comments about Pettis at the UFC 150 pre-fight press conference.
Word of Cerrone's commentary during the press conference reached Pettis quickly, and the 25-year-old fired a salvo of his own in response on Twitter.
"If [you] want to fight me you don't have to be a bitch and make up lies [Donald Cerrone]," Pettis wrote. "I'll show you why I was the champ and you weren't!"
Penick's Analysis: Cerrone's got to get past Guillard on Saturday night, but if he does, it seems a fight with Pettis will be on deck. For whatever reason, there are a few fighters who continue to take pot shots at Pettis as he recovers from injury, but it's only a matter of time before he returns and gets a chance to make his own statements where it counts the most. It's looking like Cerrone will be his next opponent, provided he gets past Guillard, but should he fail to do so and continue making comments, Pettis will have a lot more ammunition in return.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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