Anthony Pettis responds to Tony Ferguson claiming he was disrespected by “Showtime” at UFC 181 back in Dec. 2014.

Pettis and Ferguson are set to collide in the new co-main event of UFC 229. The two will do battle inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s a fight between two former UFC champions with Ferguson capturing interim gold back in Oct. 2017. As far as “El Cucuy” is concerned, he’s the true 155-pound ruler.

Anthony Pettis Responds to Tony Ferguson’s UFC 181 Claims

Ferguson recently accused Pettis of trying to “big league” him and his team back in late 2014. During a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s MMA show on ESPN, “Showtime” offered a response:

“I heard about the post, I don’t follow anybody on social media or anything like that. I’m not sure when he posted it but I know what he’s talking about. It was UFC 181, man that was a long time ago. I was getting ready to fight Gilbert Melendez at the time and he tried to come train at a gym that I was already training at. And my coaches asked his coaches to wait to come back until I was actually done because most likely we would be fighting each other. So if he took that as disrespect, that’s on him. That’s just common sense. You’re not gonna go watch somebody train that you’re gonna be fighting potentially.”

Pettis will look to earn his second straight victory after submitting Michael Chiesa back in June. While Pettis has gone 3-5 in his last eight outings, the former UFC lightweight kingpin feels he has finally gotten back to his roots.

Meanwhile for Ferguson, it’ll be his first bout since Oct. 2017. Ferguson has been out of action due to torn ligaments in his knee. “El Cucuy” has been medically cleared to return. Stick with MMA News for more UFC 229 updates.

Do you think Tony Ferguson is reaching with his comments?