When Anthony Pettis signed to fight Eddie Alvarez at UFC Fight Night 81, he did so with an implicit understanding that a win would vault him back into the title picture. That was back in September though, before Conor McGregor ended 10 years of featherweight royalty with 13 seconds of brilliance, and things ceased being so simple.

Now the future of the lightweight division effectively hinges on McGregor's next move. If the man with the numbers elects to move up and challenge for Rafael dos Anjos' title -- an announcement which appears to be a mere formality at this point -- then the rest of the 155-pound division will have little recourse but to take a backseat and watch the spectacle play out.

So what does it all mean for Pettis? Well, for starters his Jan. 17 meeting with Alvarez suddenly looks a lot less like the No. 1 contender fight he envisioned when he signed on the dotted line. However after wading through another round of injuries and delays, Pettis understands better than most that few things are guaranteed in the land of four-ounce gloves.



"I don't even care, man. Give me Conor McGregor at this point," Pettis told MMA Fighting. "I really don't care, honestly. I want to go out and prove that I'm the best in the world with or without the belt. If they give me the title shot, I'll take it. If they want to give me McGregor, I'll take it. If they want to move me down to '45, I really don't care right now. I'm so content and motivated with that burning fire to be the best in the world again. The UFC makes promises to guys, they come out and they say things that don't always happen, man.

"I've seen it a million times, so I'm not going to stress myself out over a title shot or who's next in line. If they're going to make money on Conor, I'm sure they'll give [the title shot] to Conor. But I'll tell you this, Conor going to 155 is a totally different world. I mean, he's not going to go up there and look like the Conor of 145. That's why Jose Aldo never moved to 155."

The idea of a collision course between the featherweight and lightweight titles is not a new one. Pettis himself was nearly involved in a similar scenario in 2014, when talks of Aldo moving up to 155 pounds and vying for Pettis' belt briefly picked up momentum before dying on the vine. Prior to that, Pettis agreed to drop to featherweight and challenge Aldo at UFC 163, although the fight was ultimately scrapped once Pettis tore his meniscus.

In that regard, having prepared for Aldo in the past, Pettis respects the significance of what McGregor accomplished at UFC 194, along with the unorthodox, movement-centric regimen which the Irishman preaches.

"That whole movement thing is traditional martial arts," Pettis said. "It's real talk. I live by it as well. If you go in there and you try to bang with somebody, you kind of take away your edge, you start getting hit more. It becomes a kickboxing or a boxing fight. In martial arts, mixed martial arts, you use that range, that movement, that different pace, guys aren't used to that, and Conor is having some success with it. My whole career is based on that.

"MMA fans are so quick to judge or jump onto the next train or jump onto the next thing, if he would've lost, people would've been talking like, oh, movement ain't nothing. But it definitely is important. Movement is huge in mixed martial arts. It's huge in fighting. Understanding distance. Understanding where the power in your punch is. Not just being a strong, brutal guy. I don't want to fight with force. I like to fight with accuracy."

That being said, Pettis doesn't expect to see many fighters emulating McGregor's unique approach, if only because it takes a special type of athlete to have success with it.

"Everybody can't do it," Pettis said. "Not everybody can do this kind of movement. Not everybody's bodies are made to do this. That's why I love mixed martial arts. You have to find what style works for your body type, because I mean, Conor has a 74-inch reach. Of course he is using his range. Frankie Edgar, not so much. He has to use his inside boxing and wrestling. So it's the kind of body types that create these fights, and it's why these fights are interesting."