Rafael dos Anjos Immediately Wants His Fight With Lawler to Be For an Interim Title

More announcements are pouring in for those end of the year UFC cards. A huge one just dropped not even an hour ago, pitting former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos, against former UFC welterweight champion, Robbie Lawler. It’s a fight that almost seems too good to be true. However, no sooner did we report on the fight with Rafael dos Anjos, he took to Twitter to try and up the stakes for their scrap on December 16th.

Am’I the only one that thinks that this fight should be for a interim title? Since the champ is out until next year?

— Rafael dos Anjos (@RdosAnjosMMA) October 12, 2017

You can’t knock the hustle. Tyron Woodley will be out with a shoulder injury for the rest of the year at least, but he also just defended the belt back at UFC 214 on July 29th. Not only that, but his last four fights are ridiculous. He took the belt from Lawler, defended twice against #1 contender Stephen Thompson, then defended against grappling wizard Demian Maia. It’s unlikely that the UFC would grant Rafael dos Anjos’ wish that his fight with Robbie Lawler be for the interim welterweight title, but stranger things have happened.

Here’s what Woodley had to say previously about RDA’s title aspirations:

“Well, I’ve got a Gucci belt you can have. I’ve got a Louis Vuitton belt you can have, but the welterweight gold, the 14 pounds, brother – it’s going to be a long time before I give that up. All I’m saying is there are a lot of guys in my division. They always put them in front of me, and everyone thinks they have the solution to beat me. But I think I’m the most well-rounded fighter. I punch the hardest in the UFC of all the fighters. And [Rafael dos Anjos] is a great fighter. He’s a former world champion. I do think one or two more fights in the division, with a great performance like he had this evening, we will see him on the other side of the octagon. At that point, we’ll be ready to roll.” – Tyron Woodley on the UFC 215 post-fight show after dos Anjos called him out.  

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 10/12/2017.