Rafael dos Anjos believes Daniel Cormier is hyping up Islam Makhachev too much

By Adam D Martin - August 31, 2021

UFC lightweight contender Rafael dos Anjos believes that UFC analyst Daniel Cormier is hyping up his teammate Islam Makhachev too much.

Rafael dos Anjos, Islam Makhachev

Dos Anjos meets Makhachev at UFC 267 in October in what could be a No. 1 contender fight in the UFC lightweight division. For RDA, he’s been scheduled to fight Makhachev twice previously, so he’s looking forward to finally getting the chance to fight his rival and prove that he’s hyped up too much. Speaking to AG Fight ahead of their matchup, dos Anjos explained why he believes Makhachev is getting too much hype. As far as dos Anjos is concerned, his teammate at Kings MMA in Beneil Dariush isn’t getting the respect that he deserves because he doesn’t have AKA’s Cormier and Khabib Nurmagomedov hyping him.

“We’ve been talking nonsense on the internet, but finally let’s settle the score. It will be a good fight to put me in the mix, especially now that he’s got the hype all over him. I’ll show you that I’m alive, that I’m still in the game. I have complete confidence that I will beat Makhachev. When you have guys like Khabib (Nurmagomedov) in the corner, Cormier talking all the time, it creates even more hype. I even give (Beneil) Dariush as an example. He beat the same guys as Makhachev, even better, he was more convincing, but nobody talks about him. He beat Thiago (Moises) and went to fifth in the ranking,” dos Anjos said.

Makhachev has been said to be the next coming of Nurmagomedov for many years now, but we will see how he fares when he takes on a legitimate contender in dos Anjos. It’s nothing against Moises, who is a good fighter in his own right, but RDA is a different beast.

Do you agree with Rafael dos Anjos that Daniel Cormier and others are hyping up Islam Makhachev too much?