Reigning UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos has gone on a tear in recent years, and will look to make the second defense of his 155-pound strap against Eddie Alvarez this Thursday (July 7, 2016) in Las Vegas, Nevada. The lightweight division has never been too forgiving towards its champions, and as the first Brazilian
Reigning UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos has gone on a tear in recent years, and will look to make the second defense of his 155-pound strap against Eddie Alvarez this Thursday (July 7, 2016) in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The lightweight division has never been too forgiving towards its champions, and as the first Brazilian 155-pound title holder, dos Anjos has his eyes set on securing the most title defenses in divisional history:
“I’m looking to make history. Right now, I already made history because I’m the first Brazilian champion (at lightweight), first non-American. Now I’m looking forward to having the most title defenses. One more title defense and a lot more still to come,” dos Anjos told FOX Sports.
Dos Anjos will look to take the next step in his title reign when he faces off with the tough and gritty Alvarez later this week. The Philadelphia-born challenger has compiled back-to-back victories over the likes of Gilbert Melendez and Anthony Pettis, but dos Anos, who’s coming off of a 66-second demolition of Donald Cerrone, remains confident:
“I have confidence on it. I know I’ve got heavy hands and I think it will not be fun for him to come into this kind of fight with me,” dos Anjos said. “As you can see, he just knows how to fight like that. He gets hit a lot and he doesn’t like to get hit. Actually nobody likes that, I don’t like it either. I’m so confident in my hands, in my jiu-jitsu, in my wresting, I feel like I have 25 minutes to finish this fight.
“I’m an aggressive fighter, but I’m smart. I’m not going to play stupid. I’m going to go there like I did with Cerrone. I knew I had 25 minutes to win the fight, but I’m smart enough to see the gaps and see the opportunity to finish the fight.”
Do you see the Brazilian continuing his reign as champion at UFC Fight Night 90?
A few years back, Eddie Alvarez was the Bellator lightweight champion, and Will Brooks was a rising contender in the promotion’s 155-pound division. Fast forward to present time and both men are competing under the UFC banner although they’ve never shared the cage together. In August 2014, Alvarez was released from his Bellator contract and
A few years back, Eddie Alvarez was the Bellator lightweight champion, and Will Brooks was a rising contender in the promotion’s 155-pound division. Fast forward to present time and both men are competing under the UFC banner although they’ve never shared the cage together.
In August 2014, Alvarez was released from his Bellator contract and later signed with the UFC. Brooks would go on to become the Bellator 155-pound title holder after twice beating fellow contender Michael Chandler, but he hadn’t gotten the same satisfaction given the fact that he hadn’t truly beaten the champion which he felt was Alvarez.
Scheduled to make his Octagon debut later this week against veteran Ross Pearson, “Ill” Will recently made it clear that he still has his eyes set on Alvarez, who will also compete later this week for the UFC lightweight strap:
“I wanted to fight that guy before he left Bellator,” Brooks told MMA Fighting in a recent interview. “And I’m not gonna talk too much about Bellator because that’s the past and I’m moving forward. But I still don’t feel validated because he was the champion and he left and I didn’t get the opportunity to beat the champion to become the champion. I had to turn around and beat up his leftovers. Michael Chandler, I had to beat him up twice just to feel somewhat validated. That felt good to me.”
Despite having a tough test in front of him, Brooks once again reiterated the idea that Alvarez is on his hit list, saying that the ex-champion ‘can’t run this time’:
“I told Eddie before, I told people before,” Brooks said. “He’s on my list. He got out of that ass whooping that one time. He can’t run this time. Where else is he gonna go? Is he gonna go back to Bellator, go somewhere else? Man, he can’t run.”
As for Alvarez, Brooks hasn’t been too impressed with his UFC run. “The Silent Assasin” has compiled back-to-back hard fought victories over former champions Gilbert Melendez and Anthony Pettis, but Brooks feels as if those bouts were ‘lackluster’ at best:
“These are very lackluster fights that he put together,” Brooks said. “I personally believe that I’ll come in here and put on a way better show than what he’s done.”
Do you one day hope to see Brooks and Alvarez do battle in the Octagon?
UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos was scheduled to defend his title against featherweight champion Conor McGregor in the main event of March 5’s UFC 196 in a bout that if won by McGregor would make the Irishman the UFC’s first fighter to hold two titles at one time. Unfortunately, the fight never came to
UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos was scheduled to defend his title against featherweight champion Conor McGregor in the main event of March 5’s UFC 196 in a bout that if won by McGregor would make the Irishman the UFC’s first fighter to hold two titles at one time.
Unfortunately, the fight never came to fruition, as dos Anjos was forced to withdraw from the fight due to an injury. Now healthy, the Brazilian will put his 155-pound title on the line on July 7, 2016 against Eddie Alvarez on UFC Fight Pass.
Despite the upcoming fight, however, dos Anjos does have high aspirations of his own that he’d like to hit. In fact, he’d like to eventually hold two titles himself, possibly moving up to welterweight in order to do so.
The Brazilian also admitted that he’d still be open to a scrap with McGregor:
“In the future, I want to have super-fights. I want to go to the weight class above,” he told Combate, per the Daily Star. “It Conor or it can be anyone. I‘ve been wanting to have two belts , why not? This is something that already goes through my head. I fought in 77 kg and is something I will do in the future.”
With the way dos Anjos has been performing as of late, a matchup between he and welterweight king Robbie Lawler would be a monumental fight to say the least.
Of course he obviously still has a plethora of challengers left in the crowded lightweight class, but potential super fights are on the horizon.
Who you would you rather see dos Anjos face? McGregor or Lawler?
With an absolutely monstrous amount of speculation, hype, and arguing going on over featherweight champion Conor McGregor’s ‘retirement’ and unceremonious removal from his feature rematch with Nate Diaz at UFC 200, it’s hard to decipher exactly why ‘The Notorious’ has stirred up the drama he has. The most obvious surface reason would be money, but
With an absolutely monstrous amount of speculation, hype, and arguing going on over featherweight champion Conor McGregor’s ‘retirement’ and unceremonious removal from his feature rematch with Nate Diaz at UFC 200, it’s hard to decipher exactly why ‘The Notorious’ has stirred up the drama he has.
The most obvious surface reason would be money, but UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta recently begged the question as to why a fighter making $10 million for his next bout would cause problems. McGregor has insisted that he needs to get back to the roots of his once-arduous training after getting mercilessly submitted by Diaz at March’s UFC 196, and he cited that as the reason he couldn’t attend the initial round of promotional press conferences for UFC 200.
However, regardless of the validity of his stance or not, many believe that McGregor was exposed against Diaz and is headed for a big fall, so he’s looking to make as big a payday as possible for a fight he most likely won’t win. One such believer in that theory is top-ranked lightweight Eddie Alvarez, who will take on champion Rafael dos Anjos in the first card of the UFC’s jam-packed weekend that will cap off July’s International Fight Week in Las Vegas.
Alvarez revealed a simple gameplan to beat McGregor prior to Diaz’ win over McGregor, and it involved taking the Irishman to the mat and submitting him as his opponents had done in his prior two losses. Speaking up to MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Alvarez reiterated the step-to-step focus of his plan:
“The secret I was talking about is just taking the guy down, dumping him on his head, and then submitting him.”
As for Diaz’ prior win over McGregor, Alvarez insisted McGregor wasn’t ready for the bigger, rangier boxer after facing much smaller competition at his usual home of featherweight:
“Nate has a reach, and I think everybody was so up on Conor, and Nate just has this, he has a weirdly long, long reach, and it’s difficult to deal with,” Alvarez said. “Unless you have guys in front of you who are 6’, 6’2″ boxers throwing punches at you, it’s hard to prepare in that way. He’s sort of an awkward opponent to deal with, and you need the right guys in front of you to deal with that. Conor just couldn’t adjust.”
And while McGregor may have been submitted in his perceived area of weakness on the ground, he also appeared to gas in the second round to open up the way for Diaz to lock on a fight-ending choke. After witnessing the outspoken superstar fade, Alvarez doesn’t believe McGregor will be a championship fighter because he doesn’t have the stamina for more than two rounds:
“And to be honest with you, Conor’s a one-or-two-round fighter,” Alvarez said. “He’s not a championship fighter, you know what I mean? He’s a one-or-two-round guy. He’ll be a lifer, I think, in three-rounders. If he ever decides to do five-rounders or go past to five, I think most of his fights are going to look like that. He’s going to take a dump.”
Finally, even though Diaz vs. McGregor II is off UFC 200 (for now at least), McGregor insisted earlier today that ‘no one gives a f*ck about these other fights’ as he prompted the UFC to ‘run it back,’ so a rematch could go down sometime shortly thereafter; perhaps either at UFC 201 or 202 later this year. If and when that does happen, Alvarez is picking Diaz to win once again as many have already predicted him to do:
“Oh, yeah [I’m expecting Diaz to win again],” Alvarez said. “Look, Conor couldn’t even win for two rounds. If he has to deal with any amount of adversity, how’s he going to end up winning? He was beating the sh*t out of Nate. If you can’t win for two rounds, how are you going to be in a fight with Nate Diaz? He was winning. He was beating the sh*t out of him. And he couldn’t keep up with his own winning. That was odd to me.”
In recent years, reigning UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos has upped his game by adding a more well-rounded striking arsenal to his already established world class ground game. Dos Anjos used this new and improved striking to knockout former champion Benson Henderson, and batter and bloody another former champion in Anthony Pettis on his
In recent years, reigning UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos has upped his game by adding a more well-rounded striking arsenal to his already established world class ground game.
Dos Anjos used this new and improved striking to knockout former champion Benson Henderson, and batter and bloody another former champion in Anthony Pettis on his quest to the title.
The Brazilian most recently scored a quick finish over Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone via strikes as well in his first title defense last December.
Now, dos Anjos will once again put his title on the line against former Bellator champion Eddie Alvarez live on UFC Fight Pass on July 7, 2016.
Despite his obvious improvements in the striking department, the champion will always be confident in his grappling, and he plans to use these skills in his upcoming bout:
“I miss submitting people,” he recently told UFC.com. “I have a lot of confidence in my jiu-jitsu. I believe he will try to put me down, so we’ll see what happens on the ground. I’ve been putting a lot of work on my grappling, and I believe I can submit him.”
Alvarez worked his way to a UFC title shot with two consecutive victories, most recently defeating Pettis by way of decision last January in a bout where he controlled much of the action with his wrestling.
RDA expects Alvarez to wrestle him as well, but feels as if his superior jiu-jitsu skills will make the difference:
“He spent three rounds all over Pettis. I believe he’ll try something similar with me,” he continued. “But, I believe I’m more well-rounded. My grappling is better. I’m taller. … I’m very motivated. All these [things] will help me get this win.”
As far as the champion’s health goes, he is indeed coming off of an injury. In fact, he was forced to pull out of a highly anticipated title fight with 145-pound title holder Conor McGregor last month, but it appears as if he’s already gotten back to training:
“I’m already back at work,” he said. “The bone is almost healed, but some tendons are still sore. I’ve been doing some grappling, not with full power but I can’t stand being away.”
How do you see dos Anjos vs. Alvarez playing out this summer?
Finally, after two years on the sidelines due to injury, top lightweight contender Khabib “The Eagle” Nurmagomedov made his highly anticipated return to action at last night’s (April 16, 2016) UFC on FOX 19 from Tampa, Florida. Despite the layoff, the undefeated Dagestani wrestler quickly returned to form, scoring a dominant finish over UFC newcomer
Finally, after two years on the sidelines due to injury, top lightweight contender Khabib “The Eagle” Nurmagomedov made his highly anticipated return to action at last night’s (April 16, 2016) UFC on FOX 19 from Tampa, Florida.
Despite the layoff, the undefeated Dagestani wrestler quickly returned to form, scoring a dominant finish over UFC newcomer Darrel Horcher.
Horcher, however, accepted the bout on just over a week’s notice after Nurmagomedov’s original opponent, Tony “El Cucuy” Ferguson, pulled out of the bout with an injury.
Taking to his official Instagram account after the fight last night, Ferguson gave his opinion on “The Eagle”, not giving him too much credit:
A photo posted by @TonyFergusonxt (@tonyfergusonxt) on
Ferguson, a man currently ranked No. 4 in the 155 pound weight class, has won seven straight fights including five by way of finish. Many were intrigued by a potential scrap between he and Nurmagomedov, and although he’s clearly still lobbying for his shot, it appears as if “The Eagle” is gearing up to face the winner of July’s title fight between champion Rafael dos Anjos and Eddie Alvarez.
After all, Nurmagomedov is the last man to beat dos Anjos back in 2014.
With that being said, who would you like to see Ferguson meet if “The Eagle” is not an option?
