Rafael dos Anjos says infrared sauna caused his body to overheat during latest weight cut

Rafael dos Anjos has revealed how an infrared sauna caused his whole body to overheat during weight cutting for his last fight against Michael Chiesa.

Many MMA fighters have experienced weight cutting related mishaps. That includes the former lightweight champion and UFC veteran “RDA”. The Brazilian explained how cutting weight hampered his UFC Raleigh performance in a recent interview with MMA Junkie.

“My last fight, Chiesa did a great job,” dos Anjos said. “He’s a tough guy, nice guy though, but I fought so bad. I did something bad in my weight cut. I decided to cut the rest of my weight, like the rest of the eight pounds that I had, I decided to do a different type of sauna. I usually do exercise, but I decided to do infrared sauna because I found a little gym by the side of the hotel in Raleigh, and they had an infrared sauna, and I felt kind of weird. It took me like 10 minutes to break the sweat, and once I broke the sweat, it took me like 30 minutes. I did like 30 minutes, and by the time I got home, that was Thursday night, I felt overheated.”

Anjos revealed the scary symptoms he suffered after leaving the sauna, and why his pace started to slow against Chiesa in the final rounds.

“Over the night, I felt so much headache, and I couldn’t sleep,” dos Anjos said. “I was so overheated, and I had to do an ice bath right after weigh-ins, and my body was overheated and I found out later on that these infrared saunas, they heat you inside out. They go right in the middle of your cells; they heat from inside out. I go five rounds with no problem, but for that fight, after the first round, I was pretty much done. I had no energy. That was pretty weird, and I think that was the infrared sauna that messed me up.”

RDA has experienced losses in his four of his last five bouts. Nevertheless, he has lost to worthy adversaries including Kamaru Usman, Colby Covington and Leon Edwards. Rafael dos Anjos gives credit where credit is due and tips his hat to Chiesa for a stellar performance.

“But credit to Chiesa, I don’t want to try to make any excuses,” he said. “I don’t like to make excuses but everybody saw that I was done after the first round. I was so tired, I didn’t have the energy.”

What do you think of this explanation from Rafael dos Anjos?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 4/6/2020.