The injury withdrawal of Conor Mcgregor from UFC 303’s pay-per-view headliner opened up quite a can of worms. Rafael Dos Anjos kept receipts and finally made a vengeful callback eight years later. Such rivalry is entertaining. However, the question arises, could RDA have beaten ‘Notorious’ when the time came? The fighter says yes.
The former UFC lightweight champion was to face consensus buyout king Conor McGregor in 2016, when ‘Mac’ was ripe with fame. Unfortunately, Dos Anjos incurred an injury and pulled out of their scheduled fight. The Dubliner had dissed back hard on him for missing the history-making occasion, which would have seen him become a dual-division champ a bit earlier. RDA doubles down on winning that fight anyway.
I was in great shape… I remember I was training with Lyoto Machida. He had a very similar style to Conor [McGregor]. I was having good rounds with him. I was going toe to toe with Lyoto… I was in my prime; I would have beaten McGregor for sure.
Rafael Dos Anjos to Denis Shkuratov for Submssion Radio (@SubmissionRadio; SBNation network)
Rafael Dos Anjos has long maintained that McGregor’s 2021 trilogy leg-break was not a sufficient avenue to exit the testing pool. McGregor is the most tested under the new UFC Anti-Doping Policy (UFC ADP) standards, now. But the fighter has had much leniency thrown his way to make a quicker rebound. USADA CEO, Travis Tygart even alluded to such string pulls as a big reason for their departure.
⚡️Rafael Dos Anjos is confident he would have beaten McGregor if they had fought at UFC 196 in 2016.
“I was in great shape… I remember I was training with Lyoto Machida. He had a very similar style to Conor [McGregor]. I was having good rounds with him. I was going toe to toe… pic.twitter.com/qSMThmm2SB
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) July 8, 2024
RDA has doused warring words many times. Calling out McGregor to clean up his sh*t and meet him in the octagon. Nonetheless, ‘Notorious’ had splintered attention with contractual rehashing, USADA commitments, and everything in between. He has long held on to the belief that McGregor was an easy challenge. A stylistic clash at welterweight might have proved just that.
Rafael Dos Anjos wants to ride out rest of the days at welterweight
Dos Anjos’ meteoric rise to fame becoming the UFC lightweight champ was something of a sight. And he has never considered Conor McGregor a stylistic threat on that path. The southpaw from Team Nova Uniao has bounced between 155 and 170 pounds in the past six years, facing some of the biggest names. But now he wants a change.
Rafael Dos Anjos (Source: es.agfight.com)His most recent running was at the Miami Pay-per-view card (UFC 299), where he lost a unanimous nod to Mateusz Gamrot (29-28, 29-28, 30-27). Gamrot suffered an early scare but later maintained a stable running in the last 13 minutes of the frame. RDA (32-16 MMA, 21-14 UFC) proved he can keep the pace going. But he’d prefer moving up and staying at welterweight.
Get me out of LW rankings. For you LW out there calling me out I don’t compete at LW now on. I have nothing to prove to nobody, I walk around 195 at 39 years old. There’s lots of fights that make sense to me at 170. I want to fight in July @ufc get me back in that octagon.
Rafael Dos Anjos via X (@RdosAnjosMMA)
Rafael Dos Anjos’ welterweight debut infected a trifecta of victories over Tarec Saffidine, Neil Magny, and Robbie Lawler. Then an interim title bid against Colby Covington in June 2018. Notably, the 39-year-old confirmed the switch when McGregor was still to make his five-round welterweight return at UFC 303. Dissing him back with his own quote, RDA is primed for that rivalry.
Get me out of LW rankings. For you LW out there calling me out I don’t compete at LW now on. I have nothing to prove to nobody, I walk around 195 at 39 years old. There’s lots of fights that make sense to me at 170.
I want to fight in July @ufc get me back in that octagon.— Rafael dos Anjos (@RdosAnjosMMA) May 15, 2024
McGregor’s supposed return event had already capped off a projected $20 million in gate buys. As a result, many fighters still want to rival him, or undercard him for that extra juicy slice of payout. But RDA is different. He wants to make his mark at 170 permanent; it’s expected that when the time comes he’ll have his fangs ready for the old rival.
