Rafael dos Anjos News

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.

Russell Ess - November 7, 2016

For just the second time in his professional MMA career, Rafael dos Anjos (25-9) has lost two fights in a row. After losing the UFC lightweight belt to Eddie Alvarez at UFC Fight Night 90 back in July, the former champion fought a tough and exciting battle over the weekend against Tony Ferguson (22-3) at UFC Fight Night 98, which took place in Mexico City. Ferguson was awarded a unanimous decision over dos Anjos and has stacked up nine wins in a row, setting a record that no other lightweight has been to achieve in the UFC. Ferguson is still looking to get his shot at UFC gold on his nine-fight winning streak.

Tom Taylor - November 7, 2016

https://youtu.be/kccEJf-qfi8 In less than one weeks’ time, UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez will attempt to make the first defense of his title against reigning featherweight champ Conor McGregor. In this fight, Alvarez will attempt to squash McGregor’s history-making ambition to become the first fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two weight classes simultaneously. The two champions will share the main event honors of UFC 205, which will mark the organization’s long awaited debut in New York City, New York –one of the final frontiers for MMA.

Tom Taylor - November 6, 2016

Last night, the UFC returned to Mexico City, Mexico, with a compelling, 13-fight card. Though many of the matchups on the bill resulted in rather lacklustre decisions, the card was highlighted by several performances that were clear choices for post-fight bonuses. The main event was one of these fights. That main event pitted former lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos with streaking contender Tony “El Cucuy” Ferguson. Over the course of the fight, the two top-ranked lightweights blasted one another with an incredible variety of strikes, from leg kicks, to knees, to punches, to plenty of spinning attacks. The end result was a dazzling, back-and-forth battle that would see Ferguson walk away with a hard-fought but well-deserved unanimous decision win. For this action-packed battle, Ferguson and Dos Anjos were both awarded $50,000 Fight of the Night checks.

Tom Taylor - November 1, 2016

This weekend, in the main event of the UFC’s latest trip to Mexico City, Mexico, former lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos will take on the streaking Tony Ferguson. The fight will be Dos Anjos’ first since he surrendered the title to Eddie Alvarez in July, when he wilted under a swarm of first-round punches.

bjpenndotcom - August 30, 2016

When Eddie Alvarez and Rafael dos Anjos stepped into the Octagon on July 7th, no one could have imagined Alvarez would pick up such an incredibly dominant TKO just minutes into the fight to claim the UFC lightweight championship. With the UFC opting to book dos Anjos to fight Tony Ferguson rather than give him an immediate rematch with Alvarez, the former champ has made some changes behind the scenes.

Chris Taylor - August 29, 2016

Former UFC lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos will be locking horns with surging contender Tony Ferguson on November 5 in Mexico City. And while this isn’t the fight “RDA” was initially hoping for, it is one he seems fairly happy with. “I asked for the rematch [with Alvarez], but I didn’t think they’d give it to me, so I needed to fight somebody else. So I thought, who should I fight? Tony’s a guy with eight wins straight, and Khabib is begging for the belt which I don’t think he deserves.” dos Anjos told Ariel Helwani on today’s episode of The MMA Hour.

Tom Taylor - August 29, 2016

On Monday afternoon, Ariel Helwani returned to our screens with the latest episode of The MMA Hour. One of this episode’s many big-name guests was former UFC lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos, who offered up his thoughts on the recent blockbuster rematch between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz. While pretty much the whole world seemed to love McGregor vs. Diaz 2, Dos Anjos himself wasn’t especially fond of the bout.

Russell Ess - August 9, 2016

Could you imagine what would have happened if Conor McGregor fought Rafael dos Anjos for the UFC lightweight belt back in March like it was originally planned? Would Rafael dos Anjos still be holding the lightweight belt with a giant win over “The Notorious”?