A very pivotal lightweight bout between contenders Anthony Pettis and Shane Roller is expected to take place on the televised main card portion of WEC 50 on August 18 at The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.

News of the bout was first reported by MMAjunkie.com, which states that both men have verbally agreed to the bout.

The winner of the match up between Pettis and Roller could earn a much deserved title shot against WEC lightweight champion Ben Henderson. However, the winner of next week's WEC 49 main event lightweight bout pitting former WEC champion Jamie Varner against rising contender Kamal Shalorus is also in the running to meet Henderson.

Pettis is currently riding a two-fight winning streak, picking up wins over Danny Castillo and most recently Alex Karalexis at WEC 48 in April. Prior to the wins, he suffered his first career loss against Bart Palaszewski at WEC 45 this past December. Pettis sports a 3-1 WEC record, with his only other WEC win coming in his debut with the promotion against Mike Campbell.

Pettis has competed the majority of his three-year career for the Gladiators Fighting Series, fighting seven of his 12 career bouts with the promotion. He has put together a nearly perfect 11-1 MMA record, with stoppages coming in all but one of his 11 career wins.

Roller (8-2) has won his last three bouts, with his most recent win also taking place at April's WEC 48 event as he scored a first round submission win over Anthony Njokuani. 

The Team Takedown product has put together a nearly flawless 5-1 record with the WEC, scoring other wins over Todd Moore, Mike Budnik, Danny Castillo and Marcus Hicks; while suffering his only WEC loss against current WEC lightweight champion Ben Henderson.

The Versus-televised WEC 50 event will be headlined by a WEC bantamweight title fight between champion Dominick Cruz and Joseph Benavidez. In the night's co-main event, former WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber makes the move down to the bantamweight division and meets Japan's Takeya Mizugaki.