Evan Dunham Picks Joe Lauzon Over Anthony Pettis at UFC 144, Wants Winner

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After suffering the first two losses of his career in consecutive fights, Evan Dunham has now won two straight and is back in the title hunt at 155 pounds.

Most recently he stopped Nik Lentz on Jan. 28 at UFC on Fox 2. Now he has his eye on the Feb. 26 matchup between Joe Lauzon and Anthony Pettis.

“I’m really looking forward to hopefully taking on the [winner] of Pettis and Lauzon,” Dunham told the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Savage Dog Show.” “I haven’t heard anything from the UFC or anything like that, but that’s who I have in mind and that’s who I would like to fight, would be the winner of that fight.”

Lauzon-Pettis is scheduled to take place on the UFC 144 main card. Both are coming off victories, with Pettis outpointing Jeremy Stephens in his last bout and Lauzon submitting Melvin Guillard.

“I think both of those guys are phenomenal fighters,” Dunham said of Pettis and Lauzon. “They’re both up there really pushing for that top slot to get into title contention. I see that as a perfect fight for me to go in there and take one of those guys out and place myself there.”

Dunham won his first four fights in the UFC before losing a controversial split decision to Sean Sherk. He dropped his next match too, getting stopped by Guillard, but then bounced back last September with a unanimous decision over Shamar Bailey. The Bailey win was the second and last fight for Dunham in 2011. He hopes to be more active in 2012.

“I want to get in there at least three more times this year and make it four fights this year,” Dunham said. “Usually I get in about three. Last year I had only two because of an injury. I’m looking to make that up this year.”

If the UFC does give him the winner of Lauzon-Pettis, then he thinks he’ll be fighting Lauzon next.

“I think I’m going to go with Lauzon,” said Dunham, predicting Lauzon to get by Pettis. “He’s got a better ground game. If he can kind of negate the standup a bit and get it to the ground, I think he can win on the ground, but it’s going to be a close fight. Both of those guys are tough and really talented. It’s just going to be who is able to implement their game.”

Listen to the full interview (beginning at 1:03:30).