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Rafael dos Anjos isn’t impressed with what he saw of Conor McGregor at UFC 264.
Dos Anjos (31-13 MMA, 19-11 UFC), a former UFC lightweight champion, has been named as the replacement fight for McGregor’s trilogy fight (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC ) with Poirier (28-6 MMA, 20-5 UFC) on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. He made weight in front of the card, but his services were ultimately not sought.
Still, dos Anjos was part of the narrative before and after the fight. He had a verbal altercation with McGregor backstage during weigh-ins, then when ‘The Notorious’ suffered a broken leg that resulted in his first-round loss by TKO, the Brazilian shot him on social media.
Dos Anjos was supposed to fight McGregor at UFC 196 in March 2016, but a broken foot suffered just 11 days old forced him to retire. He was replaced by Nate Diaz – who then subdued McGregor – and the Irishman has since repeatedly criticized dos Anjos for his inability to make it to the Octagon that night.
The tension of this situation remained, and despite dos Anjos’ claim that he wished McGregor no real ill will, he said he had to make his voice heard.
“I don’t believe in karma,” dos Anjos told MMA Junkie Radio on Monday. “I don’t want anything bad for him, I wish him a speedy recovery, but I had to. I had to do this. People still laugh at my injury. That’s what bothers me the most, because people don’t care about someone’s injury. I didn’t laugh at his injury. I just showed it because it’s a combat sport, we hit each other not only in combat, but also in training. I broke my foot. I was in a casting for six weeks and this guy laughed at me. All his fans, all his supporters have been laughing at me for years. Now he’s tasting his own medicine.
“Even on Friday at the weigh-ins he said, ‘Hey, you dodged me with a sore foot. He said the same on Friday too, that Dustin Poirier would leave the cage on a stretcher and watch how things turned out. He left on a stretcher with a broken foot. So he gets his own thing. He tastes his own venom and his own medicine and that’s it. I wish him a speedy recovery, but that’s what he got by talking too much.
Dos Anjos said he was not impressed with what he saw of McGregor before the injury. The first striking rallies were competitive, but Poirier’s groundwork took up half the round. Dos Anjos said he was even more efficient in this position and that it would have been a bad night for McGregor had his services been required.
“It would look a lot worse,” dos Anjos said. “I think my ground game is a lot more powerful than Poirier’s. It would be very different. Conor, he looked so sloppy, he looked so small. I met him on the day of the weigh-in and we had a little argument in the back room and he looks so small. He looks like a little boy. I would run over this guy.
Dos Anjos’ chance to “crush” McGregor will have to wait, however. He didn’t have his opportunity at UFC 196 or UFC 264, but if McGregor does manage to recover, the stars could possibly line up in the future.
There are no regrets that dos Anjos is the replacement for UFC 264. After undergoing surgery earlier this year, he said it allowed him to focus and work. He offered to do it, in fact, and while he wouldn’t have been in perfect shape had he received the call, he’s glad he did.
“Of course I didn’t have the time I needed to train, but it was good for me as it set the goal that I needed to be fit and I had maybe two or three sparring sessions, ”dos Anjos said. “I certainly wouldn’t be 100%, but it would be a big challenge for me to replace this fight. It’s a huge fight. Poirier versus Conor. I took the opportunity, I took the opportunity and they also accepted my offer. It would be a good salary for me and I said, “Let’s do it”. I wouldn’t be 100%, it wouldn’t be the ideal camp for me because four months ago I was in the operating room.
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