Anthony Pettis weigh-in snafu just the latest in strange saga of UFC 206

Anthony Pettis speaks with reporters ahead of UFC 197 at the MGM Grand hotel-casino in Las Vegas on Thursday, April 21, 2016. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal) Follow @csstevensphoto

The strange saga of the UFC 206 main event took another bizarre turn Friday morning.

Anthony Pettis missed weight for his interim featherweight title fight against Max Holloway in Toronto by three pounds and will not be eligible to claim the belt should he win at Air Canada Centre on Saturday night.

At least the show will still go on.

It’s a pay-per-view card that also features a welterweight bout between Matt Brown and Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone as well as a middleweight clash pitting Tim Kennedy against Kelvin Gastelum.

Holloway can still claim the interim title should he emerge victorious. Pettis, the former lightweight champion, will also forfeit 20 percent of his purse to his opponent.

“I’m not happy, but listen, it happens,” UFC president Dana White told TSN in Canada on Friday. “Believe me when I tell you, Anthony Pettis wanted to make weight. He’s been working for months for this day.

”When he landed here in Toronto, he was 10 pounds (over), so he should’ve made the weight. What that tells you is he’s too old and he’s too big to make that weight, is my opinion. So we’ll see where we go from here.”

Pettis, who is the first UFC fighter to miss weight for a championship bout since Travis Lutter in 2007, dropped down to featherweight for the first time in August. He weighed in at 146 pounds for his win over Charles Oliveira, but the 1-pound allowance is not applicable in title fights.

It didn’t matter. Pettis, 29, came in at 148 pounds on Friday morning and appeared agitated as he immediately walked off the scale.

White said there will be a decision to be made should Pettis win Saturday. The winner is supposed to challenge Jose Aldo for the featherweight belt.

“If Pettis wins, I’ve got to decide if I want him to fight for the 145-pound (title),” White said. “I don’t know if he can make the weight.”

A victory by Holloway would make for a more clear picture. Holloway, a 25-year-old Hawaiian who has won nine straight fights since a loss to McGregor, would become the interim champion and be in line for an early 2017 bout against Aldo.

Holloway took to Twitter shortly after hearing the news.

“Like I said before, we (are) professionals and our first job is to make weight,” he wrote. “This isn’t about just me and my team. It’s about the fans, it’s about The 6 (Toronto), it’s about the (employees) of the UFC. It’s Everyone. (The) entire sport takes a hit because of this.

“(Three pounds) is a lot to miss but the guy was trying and I respect that. At the end of the day it is what it is. It sucks it happened this way but I am glad that we still get to fight for everyone tomorrow night.”

Pettis wasn’t the only fighter to miss the target on Friday morning. Rustam Khabilov was two pounds over the lightweight limit for his scheduled bout with Jason Saggo and women’s strawweight contender Valerie Letourneau was 1.5 pounds over for her bout with Viviane Pereira.

It was the transgression of Pettis that had the biggest impact on the card. The interim title had been created less than two weeks ago when the bout between Pettis and Holloway was bumped up to the main event because light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier had to pull out of his fight with Anthony Johnson.

That bout only had been announced as the main event when it became clear former welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre wouldn’t come to terms to make his long-anticipated return to competition on this card.

With Pettis and Holloway forced into a headlining role, featherweight champion Conor McGregor “relinquished” the belt and interim champ Jose Aldo was named outright champion, allowing another interim belt to be created to add luster to the new UFC 206 main event.

Now, only one of the fighters will be competing for that title.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @adamhilllvrj on Twitter.