Rafael dos Anjos News

Tom Taylor - April 24, 2017

In a few short weeks, Rafael Dos Anjos will make his debut in the UFC welterweight division, taking on former Strikeforce champ Tarec Saffiedine at UFC Fight Night 111 in Singapore. The reason for this move is an increasingly gruelling cut to the lightweight division’s 155-pound cap – a cut that sometimes began north of 190 pounds. On Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Dos Anjos explained that his cut was so severe that it actually caused him to pass out for several minutes in the buildup to his June title loss to Eddie Alvarez.

Tom Taylor - April 24, 2017

Earlier this year, former UFC lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos announced his plans to abandon the 155-pound lightweight division he had called home for so long in favor of the 170-pound welterweight division. Though this plan seemed to be motivated in part by his consecutive lightweight losses to Eddie Alvarez and Tony Ferguson, he made it clear the real reason for this change of scenery was a brutal and exhausting cut to the lightweight division’s 155-pound cap. On Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Dos Anjos provided some context as to just how big he gets between fights, which in turn gives an idea of how much weight he has to cut to make lightweight. “195,” he said, when asked by Ariel Helwani how much he weighs currently. Apparently, however, this rather bulky amount is not due to his looming welterweight debut. instead, this is pretty standard for him between fights.  “Usually [this is where I start],” he said. “Usually I get [up to] 200 pounds, but I’ve been training for over a month. Actually, I don’t stop training. I’m always training. But as I trained, I had to diet really hard, because as much as I trained, my body would hold more water. Everything that I ate, my body kept. That’s why I decided to go up a weight [class]. My body holds too much weight.”

Tom Taylor - April 18, 2017

Earlier this year, former UFC welterweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos announced his intention to move up to the welterweight division, citing a tiresome cut to the lightweight division’s 155-pound cap as the reason for the move. After being called out by several dangerous welterweights – such as the rising Colby Covington – Dos Anjos was ultimately pencilled in for a welterweight debut opposite former Strikeforce welterweight champ Tarec Saffiedine. The pair will battle on June 17 in Singapore, not far from Evolve MMA were Dos Anjos has done much of his recent training. In advance of this anticipated showdown, Dos Anjos spoke with MMAFighting.com to discuss the fight itself and his future in the division:

Tom Taylor - April 6, 2017

Earlier this year, former UFC lightweight champ Rafael Dos Anjos announced his intention to move up to the welterweight division. Shortly after the former champ made this announcement, he began fielding callouts from a number of notable welterweights. Of all the welterweights to call Dos Anjos out, however, none did so with quite the same fervor or creativity as rising star Colby Covington. Unfortunately for Covington and his fans, Dos Anjos ultimately opted to sign on for a fight with former Strikeforce champ Tarec Saffiedine, which will go down when the UFC returns to Singapore on June 17.

bjpenndotcom - April 5, 2017

In just over two months, UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos will step into the Octagon with former Strikeforce champion Tarec Saffiedine for the former champ’s highly anticipated welterweight debut in Singapore. Ahead of the fight, Dos Anjos is hoping to experience a bit of a career resurgence as he looks to snap a 2-fight skid that saw him lose the lightweight championship to Eddie Alvarez nearly a year ago, and then most recently drop a unanimous decision to top contender Tony Ferguson, who defeated Dos Anjos in November to cement his place among the top of the UFC’s lightweight division.

Tom Taylor - April 3, 2017

Earlier this year, former UFC lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos announced his intention to move up to the welterweight division. The former champ cited an increasingly difficult cut to the lightweight division’s 155-pound cap as the reason for this move. “I reached the top of [lightweight],” he said in a Tweet. “It’s been a hard journey to make weight every time, now I want to fight at my best. I have new goals, I’m moving to [welterweight]. 

bjpenndotcom - March 31, 2017

Today, big news surfaced regarding two former champions, both of which are targeted to return to the Octagon this summer if things go according to plan. The first bit of news is that former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos is targeted to return at UFC 212 in June, only this time at welterweight. Dos Anjos is being targeted to fight Tarec Saffiedine in his highly anticipated welterweight debut, which he announced following his second straight loss at lightweight, which came to Tony Ferguson after losing his lightweight title to Eddie Alvarez in the summer of 2016. His opponent, Tarec Saffiedine, will be looking to snap a 2-fight skid that saw him drop back to back decision losses to Rick Story and Dong Hyun Kim.

bjpenndotcom - March 15, 2017

Former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos recently announced his move to the welterweight division in the midst of a 2-fight skid at lightweight which saw him lose the lightweight title to Eddie Alvarez in the summer of 2016 before then dropping a unanimous decision to Tony Ferguson in a fight which likely could have fast-tracked him to a rematch for the UFC lightweight title. Following his second straight loss, Dos Anjos revealed that he would be making the jump from 155 to 170 due to the fact that making the cut to 155 was no longer worth it financially after he lost his title.

Tom Taylor - March 14, 2017

In early January, former UFC lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos announced his intention to move up a weight class to the welterweight division. The former champ cited a tough weight cut to 155-pounds as the main reason for this exciting switch, though his back-to-back losses to Eddie Alvarez and Tony Ferguson and resulting desire for a fresh start probably also had some bearing on this decision. With the news of Dos Anjos’ planned move to welterweight, a veritable Dos Anjos sweepstakes began, as multiple noteworthy welterweights began campaigning for the chance to welcome him to this new division. Though Dos Anjos has brushed off many of these challenges, explaining that he’s keen on a fight with Robbie Lawler or Nick Diaz, callouts of him continue to this day.

Chris Taylor - March 12, 2017

UFC welterweight standout Alan Jouban will return to the octagon next weekend in London where he will square off with Gunnar Nelson in the evening’s co-main event. Jouban is very happy to finally be booked against a top-ten opponent, this after working his way up the divisions rankings over the past three years.

bjpenndotcom - February 16, 2017

After dropping his second straight loss at lightweight in 2016, Rafael dos Anjos announced that he would be making the jump up to welterweight in hopes of experiencing a bit of a career resurgence. The former lightweight champ explained that over the course of his two losses in 2016, he continued to experience struggles making the lightweight title fight limit of 140 pounds.

bjpenndotcom - January 26, 2017

In 2017, former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos will step in the Octagon at welterweight for the first time in his professional career after dropping back to back losses at 155 in 2016. Halfway through the year, dos Anjos stepped into the Octagon in hopes of defending his lightweight title for the second time as he faced Eddie Alvarez. Unfortunately for the champ, just minutes into the fight the referee was forced to intervene and stop the bout, as Alvarez was awarded the TKO win and the lightweight championship. In his next fight, RDA was looking to return to the win column as he fought streaking contender Tony Ferguson in a highly anticipated showdown. Ultimately, Ferguson picked dos Anjos apart over the course of 5 rounds, and was awarded the unanimous decision win.

Chris Taylor - January 8, 2017

Surging UFC welterweight Alan Jouban (15-4 MMA) is coming off arguably the finest performance of his octagon career at last month’s UFC on FOX 22 event in Sacramento, where he handed Mike Perry (9-1 MMA) the first loss of his professional career via unanimous decision. The victory marked Alan Jouban’s third win in a row and fifth in his past six octagon appearances.

Tom Taylor - January 8, 2017

After back-to-back losses to Eddie Alvarez and Tony Ferguson, former lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos has announced his intention to move to the 170-pound welterweight division. The former champ made this announcement on Twitter earlier this week. I reached the top of LW,it's been a hard journey make weight every time,now I want to fight at my best,I have new goals, I'm moving to WW

Tom Taylor - January 6, 2017

After two straight losses, former lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos has announced his intention to head north to the welterweight division. Dos Anjos made this announcement on his official Twitter account on Friday morning. See his rather surprising announcement below:

bjpenndotcom - November 24, 2016

It’s no secret that the lightweight division is one of the UFC’s most exciting divisions. The top 5 of the UFC’s lightweight division according to the promotions official rankings are as follows: Champion – Conor McGregor #1 Khabib Nurmagomedov #2 Tony Ferguson #3 Eddie Alvarez #4 Rafael dos Anjos #5 Nate Diaz

Tom Taylor - November 15, 2016

Joe Rogan says RDA passed out for 3 mins before his fight with Eddie Alvarez. This cutting a ton of weight needs to be stopped. You think? pic.twitter.com/FwZIgBtXv5 — The MMA Bible (@TheMMABible) November 15, 2016

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2016

Last Saturday, the UFC returned to Mexico City, Mexico, with UFC Fight Night 98. The highlight of the Octagon’s Mexican return was undoubtedly the main event, which saw streaking lightweight contender Tony Ferguson take a decision from former champion Rafael Dos Anjos in an action-packed, five-round battle. Other highlights of the card included a nice win courtesy of The Ultimate Fighter 1 veteran Diego Sanchez, who defied the odds to spoil the UFC debut of Bellator vet Marcin Held, and Ricardo Lamas’ beautiful submission defeat of the over weight Charles “Do Bronx” Oliveira.