Rafael dos Anjos is done with the lightweight division.
The former 155-pound champion is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Top 5 contender Mateusz Gamrot as part of the UFC 299 pay-per-view (PPV) event earlier this year in Miami. Falling to “Gamer” left the Brazilian at No. 14 in the official rankings.
A place “RDA” no longer wants to be.
“Get me out of [the lightweight] rankings,” Dos Anjos wrote on Twitter. “For you [lightweights] out there calling me out, I don’t compete at [lightweight] from now on. I have nothing to prove to nobody, I walk around 195 [pounds] 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.”
UFC currently has two cards scheduled for July.
The last time we saw Dos Anjos (32-26) competing at 170 pounds, he was handily defeated by ranked contender Vicente Luque at UFC Vegas 78. “RDA” has been with the promotion for nearly 16 years, making his Octagon debut at UFC 91 all the way back in late 2008.
As for potential welterweight opponents … No. 10-ranked Geoff Neal is currently unbooked.