After moving up to his now-new home at 170 pounds, ex-UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos has his sights set on current welterweight champ Tyron Woodley.
“RDA” was previously on a five-fight win streak that included a dominant 155-pound title win over Anthony Pettis and a successful title defense over Donald Cerrone via first-round knockout. He then suffered back-to-back losses to Eddie Alvarez and Tony Ferguson, losing his title and being defeated by one of the hottest prospects in the division. He then decided to make the jump up to 170 pounds and earned a unanimous decision win over Tarec Saffiedine.
Now, dos Anjos is set to meet current No. 6-ranked Neil Magny at the UFC 215 pay-per-view (PPV) event from Rogers Place in Edmonton, Canada on September 9, 2017. He recently did an interview with MMA Junkie to discuss his upcoming bout and noted that the welterweight title picture looks pretty open at this point in time, and it could be a short run to a title fight (quotes via MMA Mania):
“Now, as an ex-champ, I think the path is shorter,” dos Anjos said. “Demian (Maia) just had his shot at the belt and couldn’t get it. Tyron Woodley defended it. (Donald) Cerrone’s fight with (ex-champ) Robbie Lawler – I thought Cerrone won, but it was tough. In my opinion, Lawler wasn’t convincing, so I think that fight removed him from a possible title rematch. (Jorge) Masvidal lost to Demian,” said dos ANjos in his review of the 170-pound landscape.
“Stephen Thompson will probably fight Masvidal and had two title fights already. I’m behind in the rankings, but the path is kind of open. I think with a win over (Neil) Magny, considering I’m an ex-champ, I think I’m pretty close. I’m not too far.”
Woodley comes off of a unanimous decision win over Demian Maia in the co-main event of UFC 214, a performance that saw a ton of criticism from both fans and UFC President Dana White, who questioned if fans would even buy any more of “The Chosen One’s” PPVs going forward after putting on a ‘boring’ performance in California. While Woodley’s style may be considered safe, “RDA” claims he would push the welterweight champ to the point where he’d ‘have to’ work against him inside the cage:
“He has that game of circling around, of not wanting to take risks,” dos Anjos said. “With me, he’s going to be at risk. I won’t let him feel comfortable. I think in his past two fights, he wasn’t in jeopardy. Stephen Thompson fought very technically and strategically. Not that I won’t use strategy and technique, but I have this (stronger) pace.
“I’ll push the pace and he’ll have to go to work. I won’t let him circle around – he’ll take me down, I’ll take him down, the fight will be a scramble. I’ll push his pace. And I think that’s when I’ll get the better of him,” he added.
Dos Anjos then played off of Dana White’s PPV comments towards Woodley, joking that maybe fans will buy his PPVs after he steps into the Octagon with him:
“I think after my fight with him, people might even buy his pay-per-view,” he said with a laugh.
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