Former UFC Lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos called out fellow former champion Conor McGregor during his post-fight interview following his victory against Paul Felder at UFC Vegas 14.
“I’m 36 years old, tonight was my 38th UFC appearance, I think if Khabib is really retired it will leave the division wide open and if you look to the contenders I think like only me and Conor we are the only real champions in that division, everybody else is all interim champion so if the divisions open I think me and Conor is the fight to make.”
Following this challenge, McGregor responded on Twitter first paying respect to both fighters in the main event, as well as addressing the challenge seemingly accepting.
Next, McGregor proceeded to share some images from when the pair were initially booked to face off in 2016 as McGregor moved up in weight classes to challenge for the Lightweight title.
Ultimately this fight did not go ahead and in the meantime, McGregor went on to back to back fights against Nate Diaz while Dos Anjos lost an unsuccessful title defense to Eddie Alvarez and subsequently lost his belt and the McGregor fight.
As it stands the UFC seems just weeks away from announcing McGregor’s next fight against Dustin Poirier as both fighters have shared they have signed their respective contracts and UFC president Dana White said the fight was offered.
This event is meant to take place on January 23rd to be headlined by the pair in a rematch this time at Lightweight. The two fighters fought for the first time at Featherweight which saw McGregor stunningly knock out Poirier in round one.
With this recent victory over Felder, Dos Anjos should enter back into the top 10 lightweight rankings where he would be just a few wins away from a title shot.