Rafael dos Anjos News

Justin Golightly - January 3, 2018

Tyron Woodley is out recovering for his shoulder surgery, meanwhile the welterweights are all pacing back and forth to see who gets the next shot. Dana White went on record saying that the winner of Rafael dos Anjos and Robbie Lawler’s fight would get to fight Woodley for a title, after dos Anjos dominated the fight, it seemed like the next logical option. He still is campaigning for the shot while Tyron Woodley has other plans than the former lightweight champ and his boss: Georges St-Pierre, then dos Anjos. “I don’t see nobody ahead of me that deserve a next title shot, I’m former lightweight champion and I’ve been on the UFC for almost 10 years. 2017 was a great year and I’m looking forward for 2018.” — Rafael dos Anjos on Instagram.

Tom Taylor - December 19, 2017

Last Saturday night, the UFC touched down in snowy Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada with UFC on Fox 26. In the card’s exciting main event, former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos asserted himself as one of the welterweight division’s top contenders, defeating former titleholder Robbie Lawler with a dominant, unanimous decision win. Shortly after this breakthrough win, dos Anjos received a callout from fellow welterweight contender Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, who called him out for a title eliminator bout to establish a true number-one-contender.

Justin Golightly - December 19, 2017

Santiago Ponzinibbio stared down the Mike Perry storm and came out on top on Saturday. While Perry was unranked, it was a win over an opponent that was getting a big push from the UFC’s promotional machine. After taking out the prospect, Ponzinibbio is trying to catapult himself into huge fights. Knowing a title shot may not be possible yet, he wants the next best thing: A number one contender scrap with Rafael dos Anjos to see who gets to fight the champ when he comes back from shoulder surgery. “I know the UFC might not give me [a title shot] now because Tyron Woodley has an injured shoulder, so I think they should give me Rafael dos Anjos. Rafael dos Anjos and I should fight and the winner should fight for the title. I think this is a good match. I thought it was a good fight and good performance by Rafael dos Anjos. I like the winner of this fight, it’s nothing personal with Rafael dos Anjos. I like him, he won, but he only has three fights in this division you know. He won against Tarec Saffiedine, he is an old guy. Neil Magny is tough, but Lawler is old too and not having the best moment in his career.”

Tom Taylor - December 18, 2017

On Saturday night, in the main event of the stacked UFC on Fox 26, former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos established himself as one of the welterweight division’s top contenders by dominating Robbie Lawler to a unanimous decision win. In fact, dos Anjos could easily be the next man in line for UFC welterweight champ Tyron Woodley. He certainly believes he’s earned the chance. “I’m able to wait for him,” Rafael dos Anjos told the media at the UFC on Fox 26 post-fight press conference, assuring he’s willing to wait for a crack at the champ (h/t MMAFighting). “I think I did enough in the division to deserve the title shot. And I’m not a guy that talks so much, try to get that title shot because I’m talking bad about people, cursing people. I just go there and do a great performance like I did tonight. I hope so. Dana White said that. That’s what I hope.”

Chris Taylor - December 17, 2017

Tyron Woodley explains why he was not impressed by Rafael dos Anjos’ performance at UFC on FOX 26 in Winnipeg. The former lightweight champion, Dos Anjos, put on a masterful performance against former welterweight champion Robbie Lawler in the main event of UFC on FOX 26 last night, earning a lopsided decision victory.

Tom Taylor - December 17, 2017

On Saturday night, the UFC touched down in snowy Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada with UFC on Fox 26. In the card’s exciting main event, former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos asserted himself as one of the welterweight division’s top contenders, defeating former titleholder Robbie Lawler with a dominant, unanimous decision win. Not everyone, of course, was impressed by dos Anjos’ huge win. Colby Covington – who is really the only other man with legitimate claim to a welterweight title shot – quickly took to Twitter post-fight to discredit his rival’s win.

Tom Taylor - December 16, 2017

On Saturday night, the UFC touched down in snowy Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada with UFC on Fox 26. In the card’s exciting main event, former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos asserted himself as one of the welterweight division’s top contenders, defeating former titleholder Robbie Lawler with a dominant, unanimous decision win. Relive some of the highlights of Rafael dos Anjos’ masterful defeat of Robbie Lawler in the clips below!

Tom Taylor - December 16, 2017

On Saturday night, the UFC touched down in snowy Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada with UFC on Fox 26. In the card’s exciting main event, former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos asserted himself as one of the welterweight division’s top contenders, defeating former titleholder Robbie Lawler with a dominant, unanimous decision win. Unsurprisingly, dos Anjos’ masterful performance generated some interesting reactions from the MMA community. See the best of these reactions below!

Justin Golightly - December 9, 2017

Colby Covington has been making a case for a shot at welterweight champion Tyron Woodley for awhile now, but it’s been more than just talk. He did end up with a win over the last title challenger in grappling guru Demian Maia. This only heated up his rampage promotional tour to make sure Woodley, and every other welterweight for that matter, knew he was the new man to beat at 170-pounds. His relentless tirade looks like it has resulted in a roster-wide blocking on social media. You can block it on twitter but the chaos sensation is sweeping the world!!! It can’t be stopped!!! pic.twitter.com/ks0T2c3AWn

Russell Ess - December 8, 2017

Big news for the UFC middleweight division was dropped late Thursday as the UFC announced that Georges St-Pierre vacated his newly captured middleweight title. With St-Pierre vacating the title, UFC interim middleweight champion Robert Whittaker was deemed the undisputed champion and former champ Luke Rockhold is now challenging Whittaker for the belt at UFC 221 in February. While Dana White may not be so happy about GSP’s decision to leave the middleweight division, former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos praised “Rush” for his quick decision to drop his new title.

Justin Golightly - October 24, 2017

Rafael dos Anjos has gone from losing his UFC lightweight title, to being a fight away a shot at the welterweight strap in a little over a year. He’ll fight Robbie Lawler in Winnipeg to determine who’s the next number one contender to challenge Tyron Woodley. It has Fight of the Night potential all over it and definitely could go down as a classic scrap, but they’ll be no heated build-up or public insults. The way Rafael dos Anjos thinks, we shouldn’t really need that. They’ll say all they need to each other inside the Octagon. “I have to fight and get the best fight for me. The best guys are ahead of me and this new generation, they try to talk crap and attack others on social media. I’m glad to have this fight with Robbie [Lawler] because there’s no trash talk. It’s a man’s fight and that’s how I like to do it. We show our talk in the Octagon when we get locked in the cage, we talk with our fists.” 

Justin Golightly - October 20, 2017

Say what you will about Tyron Woodley, but you can’t deny the man his due. He took the welterweight title away from Robbie Lawler in just over two minutes. Since then, he’s defended it three times against the very best in the division. He eyed a superfight with Georges St-Pierre, but was overlooked for Michael Bisping. In his own division, former opponent Lawler and Rafael dos Anjos will duke it out to see who gets to challenge him next. As for now, Woodley is nursing his shoulder back to health so he’s content to ‘watch the throne’ to see how everything unfolds. Great reference by the way, Woodley. “I think it’s a great match-up. If they’re on and they fight hard and they fight the way that they we know they can, it could be an amazing fight. But one person steps forward and decides to not be the vicious fighter they’re known to be — they’ve had nights off, so. My thoughts is, I don’t have a lot of thoughts about it. The division is crazy right now.I’m going to watch ti from the throne. I’m going to watch all the guys compete against each other. There are seven very, very meaningful match-ups in the welterweight division. It’s the toughest division in the world, so it’s an exiting moment for me to watch to see who emerges. I know Dana White said that RDA versus Robbie Lawler dictates who I fight next, I don’t have an issue with that. Obviously we’re in the sport of mixed martial arts where crazy things happen, big fights arrive and they may take precedence over that.”

Justin Golightly - October 12, 2017

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?

Justin Golightly - October 3, 2017

Rafael dos Anjos’ run in the welterweight division much like his former opponent “Cowboy” Donald Cerrone. He’s taken out Tarec Saffiedine and Neil Magny, and he’s not even close to slowing down. Kamaru Usman was campaigning for a fight with dos Anjos after destroying Sergio Moraes at UFC Fight Night 116. However, dos Anjos is looking to take advantage of his name and quick rise in his new division for a shot at Tyron Woodley. “I just beat the No. 6 in the division and I’m currently at No. 5, it doesn’t make any sense to fight the No. 10 [Kamaru Usman]. I understand that everyone is trying to promote themselves to get interesting fights, but I’m worried about fighters who are ahead of me. Even [Tyron Woodley]’s manager said I deserve to fight for the title. So, I don’t know why he’s worried about me.”

Tom Taylor - September 10, 2017

Shortly after his steamrolling of long-time welterweight contender Neil Magny, former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos began calling for a scrap with reigning welterweight champion Tyron Woodley. “This division’s wide open; all the top-five, top-six guys in this division have lost to the champion or to the last challenger, which was Demian Maia,” dos Anjos told reporters after UFC 215 (h/t MMAJunkie.com). “(Stephen) Thompson lost twice to Woodley already. I’m the new blood in this division. I was getting ready to fight Woodley if Maia didn’t take the fight, but he ended up taking the fight. But I was getting ready for it, so here I am.”

Tom Taylor - September 10, 2017

Earlier this month, UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby made the surprising admission that, if Demian Maia couldn’t be ready in time to battle welterweight champ Tyron Woodley at UFC 214, the title shot would have gone to former UFC lightweight king Rafael Dos Anjos. “What’s interesting about this [dos Anjos vs. Magny] fight is that we obviously had the fight with Tyron Woodley and Demian Maia, and there was some question… Tyron’s team made it public that Tyron was fighting on this card, and Maia wasn’t initially sure he could do it,” Shelby explained. “The guy waiting there for that fight was RDA. He had already accepted the fight with Tyron had Maia not been able to do it.”

Justin Golightly - September 9, 2017

Just on their names alone, the fight between Neil Magny and Rafael dos Anjos could have been a main event if this was a UFC on FOX card and not a pay-per-view event. With an intimidating record, Magny was at number six in the welterweight division as he welcomed dos Anjos into the weight class for his second fight. A win over Magny would be a huge statement for dos Anjos to make after moving up in weight, so that’s exactly what he went out there and did. https://twitter.com/Jonnyboy_6969/status/906729105982464001

Tom Taylor - September 4, 2017

This Saturday night, on the main card of UFC 215, former UFC lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos will take his second fight in the welterweight division opposite dangerous contender Neil Magny. Apparently, however, dos Anjos very nearly found himself in a fight with UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley instead. In a UFC 215 preview video featuring Jon Anik and UFC matchmakers Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard, Shelby explained that a dos Anjos vs. Woodley welterweight title fight was the contingency plan had Demian Maia not been able to accept a title fight with Woodley at UFC 214.