Rafael dos Anjos responds to Kevin Lee’s suggestion to meet at 165 lbs

UFC Rochester headliners Rafael dos Anjos and Kevin Lee are two of the most vocal advocates for a 165-pound division in the UFC. Ahead of their welterweight fight at UFC Rochester this weekend, Lee even suggested they both weigh-in at 165 pounds to make a statement to the UFC.

“If he’s down with it, I’d be down – and I’d cut an extra little five pounds for that, make a statement, make some noise.” Lee told reporters backstage at UFC 236. “It’s in our contract, we ain’t got to, but I like to push some buttons. It might be a little backroom deal that we got on there. RDA’ is kind of, he don’t really give you too much to go off of, and he don’t really give you too much back and forth, so, you know – I’ll ask him, see what he thinks about it.”

Unfortunately for Kevin Lee, Rafael dos Anjos doesn’t seem interested in this idea. He plans on hitting the weight dictated by his contract.

“I saw that, man, but there’s no deal with the enemy on fight week,” Rafael dos Anjos told MMA Fighting this week. “It’s war now. There’s no deal. I’ll make the weight I signed to make, 171 with the extra pound. If he wants to make 165 to show he can do it, it’s up to him. I think it would be great to have this division, but I trained for 170 pounds and that’s what I’m going to do.

“Am I going to make deals with the enemy? No way. It’s war now. You make deals later, become friends later. Right now, he’s the man standing in front of me, he’s the man trying to take my dreams, and he won’t succeed.”

Who do you think will win this 170-pound fight between Kevin Lee and Rafael dos Anjos?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 5/16/2019.