Almost no one saw this coming. On Saturday night in Dallas at UFC 185, Rafael dos Anjos dethroned UFC lightweight champion Anthony “Showtime” Pettis by unanimous decision, and it wasn’t even close.
Pettis had stood up to the challenge from Gilbert Melendez at UFC 182 in Dec. 2014. Some likened dos Anjos‘ style to Melendez’s and figured Pettis would win this fight as he had the last. That wasn’t the case.
Dos Anjos won all five rounds on all three judges’ scorecards.
Per Damon Martin of Fox Sports, dos Anjos did it all at less than 100 percent.
Thomas Gerbasi of UFC.com captured this quote from dos Anjos after the big win.
“I came from the bottom,” the new lightweight champ said. “I couldn’t ever imagine in my life being here, fighting in a main event and being UFC champion.”
There were three huge keys to dos Anjos‘ title-winning performance.
Chin
When Pettis fought Melendez, the champion was able to catch the challenger coming in by landing hard right-hand counters. The punch led to Pettis‘ submission victory on that night. On Saturday, he landed similar shots and two head kicks, but dos Anjos shrugged them off.
It had to be demoralizing for Pettis to land shots that had little effect on his hard-charging opponent. Pettis probably figured the punches would stem the tide, but instead, dos Anjos kept pushing forward while sticking to his game plan.
Striking Accuracy
The left hand of dos Anjos was money all night, and the same can be said about his entire striking game. Dos Anjos landed 90 of 171 significant strikes for a connect rate of 53 percent.
Dos Anjos was unpredictable in his approach. He’d land the left hook, briefly look to follow up, but he’d then sink down to secure the takedown. It proved to be a winning strategy.
Stamina
With all the pressure dos Anjos was applying, it wouldn’t have been surprising if he was tired during the championship rounds. Instead, dos Anjos maintained his torrid pace throughout.
Dos Anjos had four takedowns in the championship rounds and still landed 24 of 40 significant strikes. He just wouldn’t let up, and the effort won him the title.
Stats per UFC.com.
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