Rafael dos
Anjos is eager to return to the Octagon on the heels of his
second-round submission win over Bryan
Barberena in a welterweight bout at UFC on ESPN 42 this past
December.
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Sometimes finding a fight is easier said than done.
“My goal was to return in March or April, but it’s not easy to
find opponents,” dos Anjos told Sherdog.com. “The UFC offered some
guys I already fought and some others that I had to look on Google
to find out who they were.”
The former lightweight champion is interested in fights against the
likes of Dustin
Poirier and Tony
Ferguson, but when it comes to the welterweight division, many
of the top names are already booked.
“I also suggested [Stephen] Thompson, but it looks like he
wants to fight strikers, and I did a lot of grappling against
Barbarena,” dos Anjos said. “Since Colby [Covington] must face
Belal [Muhammad], [Jorge] Masvidal is paired with [Gilbert
Burns] and [Kevin] Holland with [Santiago]
Ponzinibbio, I’m pretty much waiting for another UFC
suggestion. When I decided to return to welterweight, I reduced my
camps to five or six weeks since I stay in shape training every
day.”
A close friend of Beneil
Dariush from their time at Kings MMA, dos Anjos is excited to
see his former training partner in a potential matchup with
Charles
Oliveira.
“I would say the best chances for ‘Do Bronx’ are in the stand up.
Beny evolved a lot his wrestling and his ground game is tough. If
UFC confirms it, that one will be a hell of a fight,” he said.
When it comes to the future clash between “TUF 31” coaches Conor
McGregor and Michael
Chandler, dos Anjos favors the Irish star.
“Conor is very smart. He always chooses the fights that favor him,”
dos Anjos said. “Chandler´s IQ is not really high. Sometimes the
guy looks like he wants to get hurt. It’s fine, he provides great
fights for the fans but these will come back [to haunt] him one
day. I would go 80/20 in favor of Conor in that one.”
On the other hand, dos Anjos doesn’t believe Islam
Makhachev should be heavily favored in his lightweight title
defense against Alexander
Volkanovski at UFC 284.
“I disagree. I see Volkanovski with a real chance to surprise
Islam,” he said. “The guy already weighed more than 200 pounds. I
think he will shock the world on Saturday and win on points.”
Dos Anjos believes that judo training will be a key point of
emphasis for Volkanovski.
“It’s important to note that Makhachev doesn’t use wrestling. His
throws are basically from judo,’”dos Anjos said. I did two camps to
fight him and [Andre] Pederneiras brought a couple of top judo guys
to help me. At the beginning of the camp I never took so many
throws. By the end, when I evolved my defense, everything changed.
I hope Volkanovski trained with judo guys. If he did, he has a
great chance to avoid takedowns and dominate Islam on the feet with
his speed.”