Pettis not frustrated he missed out on fights vs. McGregor, Cerrone

Anthony Pettis says he was recently in talks to fight both men involved in Saturday's UFC 246 main event - Conor McGregor and Donald Cerrone - but he isn't frustrated that neither bout came to fruition.

"If it's supposed to happen, it will happen," Pettis told MMA Fighting's Peter Carroll at UFC 246 media day Thursday in Las Vegas. "I don't go out there and ask for the fight. I'm not like, 'Conor, let's fight.' If it happens, it happens. Whoever wants to fight, let's fight."

Pettis, a former UFC lightweight champion, said he was targeted to square off with McGregor last year.

"I think Conor was offered to me in the summertime, but it fell through," Pettis said. "It was supposed to be Madison Square Garden."

"Showtime" went on to fight Nate Diaz in a welterweight bout at UFC 244 last August and lost by unanimous decision.

After that, Pettis and Cerrone verbally agreed to face each other, the Roufusport fighter said.

"Me and 'Cowboy,' we just agreed upon a fight in January, because no one wanted to fight us," Pettis said. "We both were trying to find fights, so I just reached out, like, 'Hey, you wanna fight?' And he's like, 'Yeah, let's fight.'"

Pettis' head coach, Duke Roufus, told MMA Fighting in November that Pettis and "Cowboy" were both open to the pairing, but the promotion shot it down. McGregor versus Cerrone was confirmed shortly after.

"They wanted to fight each other, they both accepted the fight, the UFC just doesn't want to do it," Roufus said.

The 32-year-old Pettis will look to get back on track in his lightweight return against Diego Ferreira at UFC 246 on Saturday. Pettis hasn't competed at 155 pounds since October 2018.