Rafael Fiziev turns his attention to tennis star Rafael Nadal, after beating Rafael Dos Anjos, to determine who the best Rafael truly is.
Fiziev fought a fantastic fight against Dos Anjos at UFC Vegas 58, dictating where the fight took place for almost the entire bout. ‘RDA’ was able to get two takedowns in the fight, but was unable to put Fiziev in any danger on the ground. Many fans and analysts had questions of Fiziev’s endurance and how his power would translate in a five round fight, but Fiziev answered.
After looking as if he was starting to slow down in the fourth round, Fiziev came out in the fifth round swinging for the fences and caught Dos Anjos with a beautiful left hook and put his lights out. The TKO earned Fiziev a $50K ‘Fight of the Night’ bonus, to go along with what seems to be a significant boost in the lightweight rankings.
That was Dos Anjos’s first time being TKO’d in 6 years. His last time he was caught like that was against Eddie Alvarez for the Lightweight championship.
After his win, Rafael Fiziev had another hilarious callout, when he asked Rafael Nadal to step in the octagon with him
Your move, @RafaelNadal
[ @RafaelFiziev | #UFCVegas58 ] pic.twitter.com/29rxGQWD3J
— UFC (@ufc) July 10, 2022
Fiziev also went on to call out anyone in the top five of the lightweight division. As it stands now, Fiziev is most likely looking at the 7 slot on the rankings. Beneil Dariush and Islam Makhachev seem to have some unfinished business, and it looks as if Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler may be in the midst of a heated rivalry. A fight that makes a ton of sense in the near future, may be Fiziev taking on Justin Gaethje.
A fight between Gaethje and Fiziev would insure fireworks and would be a huge test to see if Fiziev is a true championship contender in the division.
Would you like to see Gaethje vs Fiziev?