BATTLE OF WELTERWEIGHTS SET TO ‘STEAL THE SHOW’ AT UFC 215
He could have been Conor McGregor.
Timing is everything, in life and in the Octagon.
On Wednesday, Rafael dos Anjos showed up at Rogers Place for the first day of buildup to Saturday’s UFC 215 card. The Brazilian, who owns a set of cauliflower ears that can compete with anybody in boxing history, is here as a member of the supporting cast. He’s not even involved in one of the two title fights on the pay-perview event featuring flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson and bantamweight women’s champion Amanda Nunes.
A year ago, dos Anjos was the lightweight champion of the world. A year ago, he was scheduled to fight Conor McGregor for a massive payday, but dos Anjos had to pull out due to injury.
McGregor went on to win fame and fortune followed by insane fame and more than $US100 million in additional fortune from last month’s boxing bout against Floyd Mayweather.
“Good for him,” dos Anjos said Wednesday of MacGregor. “Everything happens for a reason. That wasn’t the time. It didn’t happen. But I believe everything happens for a reason.”
Other than those involved in the title fights, dos Anjos is the only other competitor on the card most casual sports fans have probably heard of, unless you’re an amateur wrestling fan and can recall U.S. grappler Henry Cejudo winning an Olympic gold medal in Beijing 2008, or maybe Wilson Reis, who lost his title shot against Johnson in April.
Dos Anjos beat Anthony Pettis for the UFC lightweight championship at UFC 185 in 2015. He revealed after that fight that he’d torn his medial collateral ligament only a few weeks before the bout. That bout won him a second ‘Performance of the Night’ bonus award of his career. The third one came in his first title defence against Cowboy Cerrone in a 66-second match, the fastest finish in the history of the weight class.
The next match/title defence was supposed to be against McGregor at UFC 196. Dos Anjos broke his foot during training. In his second title defence, despite being a 3-to-1 favourite, he lost to Eddie Alvarez. Dos Anjos blacked out again and again prior to the fight due to the effects of trying to make weight.
“I had a really tough time cutting weight, and I passed out three times trying to make weight that day, including once for over two minutes,” he said, recounting the story in a one-on-one interview on Wednesday. “Looking back, I shouldn’t fight that fight. I see a lot of guys pull out at the last minute. It’s becoming very common right now. But I didn’t want to upset the fans. Everybody was waiting for that fight.
“I made that choice to fight, lost my belt. It was a message to me. Making weight was a big issue for me. I needed to look at having my health and enjoying my kids and live a better life — fight strong, fight healthy and fight at my best. Now I’m really looking forward to the welterweight belt.”
Now the UFC’s 10th-ranked welterweight, dos Anjos will fight sixth-ranked Neil Magny in a bout many experts expect to be the most interesting bout on the program.
There will be an ‘Up’ escalator ride for the winner toward a title shot and a ‘Down’ escalator trip for the loser.
While dos Anjos has been reinventing himself as a welterweight, Magny has been out of sight and out of mind.
“I’ve been out eight months recovering from a really bad neck injury,” he said. “But now I feel great, the best I’ve felt for years. Fight of the night?
“I think we can steal the show,” said Magny. “Every fight I go into, I try to leave it all in there and make it exciting for the fans. Rafael does the same thing. He has some great wins over some great competitors. I’m sure he’s going to bring the fight to me, as well. So I think this has the potential to be the Fight of the Night, the Performance of the Night and all types of things." Dos Anjos agrees.
“He’s a top-six contender, and I’m on my way for that belt. I think it will have a great finish and be a great fight. That’s my goal — to have a highlight performance,” he said.
If you’re new to all this UFC business, there’s bonus money to be made by giving fans full value for their entertainment dollar.
There’s ‘Fight of the Night’, ‘Knockout of the Night’, ‘Submission of the Night’ and ‘Performance of the Night.’ Each is worth $50,000. Not exactly McGregor’s $100-million. But …
“I’ve got a wedding I’m planning for, so that extra money would help me out,” said Magny.