Dos Anjos not quite ready to chill
UFC ON FOX: Welterweight contender to brave Winnipeg weather for shot at Lawler
Rafael dos Anjos didn’t expect to fight again this year. Having just returned home from a family vacation following his firstround submission win over Neil Magny at UFC 215 in Edmonton in September, the former lightweight champion expected to spend the rest of 2017 staying in shape and watching to see how things played out at the top of the welterweight division.
With a host of pivotal matchups in the always-competitive 170-pound weight class on tap between now and New Year’s Eve, the soon-to-be 33-year-old Brazilian envisioned scouting the competition and stepping back into the Octagon in early 2018, but the UFC called with an opportunity the championship contender couldn’t pass up.
“I didn’t think I would be fighting again this year, but fighting Robbie Lawler as the headline of this show, it couldn’t get better than that,” said dos Anjos, who faces the former welterweight kingpin in the main event of the UFC on FOX event scheduled to take place at Bell MTS Place Dec. 16 in Winnipeg.
The winner of the bout will earn a shot at current champ Tyron Woodley, according to UFC president Dana White, though, given the slate of standout matchups on deck in the division, that could change.
Regardless of whether a title shot is in the offing for dos Anjos after this contest, 2017 has already been a tremendous bounce-back year for the man who entered last year booked to face Conor McGregor, but ultimately experienced a year from hell.
A broken foot cost him the opportunity to face McGregor at UFC 196, making way for Nate Diaz to step in and light the fuse on his rivalry with the brash Irishman. Once he was healthy enough to compete, dos Anjos lost the lightweight title to Eddie Alvarez. Four months later, he was on the business end of a one-sided decision against Tony Ferguson and just like that his place in the lightweight division was up for debate.
Tired of depleting his body to make the 155-pound limit — he fainted before the fight with Alvarez — dos Anjos decided to climb the competitive ladder and relocate to the welterweight ranks, which has paid off.
Following a debut decision win over former Strikeforce champ Tarec Saffiedine, dos Anjos turned in one of the most dominant performances of his career, quickly taking Magny to the canvas and locking up an arm-triangle choke to secure the first-round submission victory.
“I had some good performances in the past, but that one was really good,” he said of his efforts in Edmonton. “I land the leg kick and got on his side control, a very good position for the beginning of the round, so I was able to use my jiu-jitsu and control him and get the choke. It was great.
“Fighting in that weight division (welterweight), I feel way better. For those losses, I had a very hard time, but it is what it is. It’s the past. I moved up, I reinvented myself and I feel fresh; I feel way better.”
Less than a year after losing to Ferguson and taking stock of his career, he’s back on the brink of challenging for a title with his pre-Christmas engagement with Lawler the only thing standing between him and a chance to fight for championship gold in a second division.
Just 10 fighters have ever competed for a UFC title in two divisions and only three — Randy Couture, B.J. Penn and McGregor — have sat atop two weight classes, so it’s an exclusive club dos Anjos would very much like to join, though he’s not thinking about anything other than sharing the cage with Lawler.
“It will be great to have this opportunity,” he said of facing Lawler and closing in on a title shot. “Of course, 100 per cent of my focus is on Lawler, on December. But of course it is extra motivation for me to know that I’m really close to having my title shot at welterweight and becoming a two-division champion.”
Well, that and the weather in Winnipeg in December
“Man, every single person that I’ve spoken with is warning me about the weather, the cold,” dos Anjos, whose previous cold-weather experience came at UFC 154 in Montreal where he defeated Mark Bocek, said with a laugh.
Told things might be a little frostier this time around, the Rio de Janeiro native, who now resides in Orange County, Calif., was at a loss for words.
“Wow, that was cold,” he said, recalling his November 2012 excursion to La Belle Province.
While the only real way to combat the frigid temperatures and howling winds are to wear layer upon layer and generally avoid the outdoors as much as possible, a victory over Lawler will likely turn frozen Winnipeg into dos Anjos’ favourite place on Earth — at least until the adrenalin wears off and he’s forced to go back outside.
E. Spencer Kyte covers MMA for The Sun and The Province. Follow him on social media: @spencerkyte