Josh Thomson (pictured) will get the next UFC lightweight title shot. Photo via UFC.com/Getty Images.
We all thought it was T.J. Grant that would get a shot at newly crowned UFC lightweight champ Anthony Pettis, but no longer.
Grant announced last night that he still isn’t fully recovered from a previous injury and will be unable to fight Pettis at UFC on Fox 9 in December. The UFC then announced on “Fox Sports Live” that in Grant’s place will be former Strikeforce title holder Josh Thomson.
“Unfortunately I won’t be fighting Pettis on Dec. 14,” Grant wrote on Twitter. “I am still not yet 100 percent and can’t commit to fight.”
Grant was originally scheduled to fight Benson Henderson at UFC 164, but a concussion forced him out of that fight. According to the fighter’s tweet on Monday, it appears he still isn’t ready to go due to that injury.
Thomson is coming off a decisive win over Nate Diaz at UFC on Fox 7, a fight in which he handed Diaz the first TKO loss of his career. The fight catapulted Thomson up the UFC rankings, and now he’s in a position to earn the UFC title lightweight title, in addition to the one he owned in Strikeforce.
UFC on Fox 9 takes place at the Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, Calif., which is just over 100 miles away from where Thomson calls home in San Jose.
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