Despite dos Anjos beef, Anthony Pettis denies he's helping 'Cowboy' for title fight

Anthony Pettis

Anthony Pettis said he never offered to help Donald Cerrone prepare for his upcoming UFC lightweight title fight against Rafael dos Anjos, despite what “Cowboy” said in a recent interview.

Pettis (18-3 MMA, 5-2 UFC) shares history in the octagon with both Cerrone (28-6 MMA, 15-3 UFC) and dos Anjos (24-7 MMA, 13-5 UFC).

“Showtime” stopped Cerrone with a thunderous body kick in less than three minutes at UFC on FOX 6 in January 2013. He fought dos Anjos much more recently and dropped the lightweight title to the Brazilian in a lopsided unanimous decision at UFC 185 in March.

While Pettis is looking to rebound from the title loss, Cerrone looks to capture it when he challenges champ dos Anjos at UFC on FOX 17, which airs Dec. 19 on FOX from Amway Center in Orlando, Fla.

Cerrone has already lost to dos Anjos once before – at UFC Fight Night 27 in August 2013. However, he said Pettis offered to help him prepare for the rematch in order to create a different outcome.

“Anthony told me, he said, ‘Cowboy, if you need me to come down and train for dos Anjos – I hate that motherf-cker,'” Cerrone said on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. “I said, ‘Pettis, I might just hit you up on that.'”

Donald Cerrone

The title fight was just the beginning of the rivalry between Pettis and dos Anjos. They’ve continued to go back-and-forth through the media in recent months, and a rematch could occur sometime in the future. Although Pettis carries an obvious distain toward dos Anjos, he denied extending an olive branch to Cerrone and said his comments must have been misconstrued.

“No, that’s not true at all,” Pettis said at a recent UFC Q&A session with fans. “He made a comment at a fight saying if I was fighting Khabib (Nurmagomedov) that he was going to – he hates that guy and would help me train for Khabib. I was like, ‘You got RDA next.’ He took what I said and put it out there like I was going to help him train.”

Pettis and Cerrone weren’t exactly friendly prior to their fight nearly three years ago, but the tension appears to have settled. It may flair up again if the two athletes compete a second time, which is a realistic possibility if Cerrone can capture UFC gold in December.

That’s one reason why Pettis, who will attempt to get back in the win column against former Bellator champ Eddie Alvarez, doesn’t think training with Cerrone is a wise decision.

“I’m possibly fighting this dude again, and he was talking big stuff when I fought him before,” Pettis said. “So I’m definitely not helping him out training.”

For more on UFC on FOX 17, check out the UFC Events section of the site.