Dos Anjos regrets not fighting in Brazil, but celebrates duel against top 10

Dos Anjos moved up to welterweight (Photo: Brandon Magnus/UFC)

Rafael dos Anjos Finally, his welterweight debut was made official. However, it didn't exactly go the way the former lightweight champion planned. After campaigning to fight in Brazil at UFC 212, Dos Anjos was cast against Tarec saffiedine at UFC Singapore, June 17th. Despite not hiding his dissatisfaction at not being chosen to play 'at home', the Brazilian celebrates the fact of facing a top 10 player in the category.

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“My desire would be to fight in Rio, but unfortunately there were already big names on the card, it's a very competitive card and that's a business. The UFC knows that I have a lot of market in Singapore too, I've been going to Singapore for six, seven years, I've already trained for camp there, there's the Evolve MMA gym, which I'll always train at. I think they know all this. I did my last training camp for Eddie Alvarez there. My desire was to fight in Rio, but Singapore will also be very good for me. I think I'll do part of the training here (in the United States) and part there. Half and half. I'm going to Evolve with about four, five weeks to go and finish the training there”, he declared, in an interview with the website 'Combate.com'.

When asked about the qualities of his next opponent, Rafael adopted a respectful stance, as usual, and highlighted that by beating an opponent of Saffiedine's caliber, he already arrives at welterweight with morale.

“I think Tarec is a tough guy, a former Strikeforce champion, he’s in the top 10 at welterweight. It's the fight I needed. Saffiedine has already beaten big names, it will be good for me to get a victory over a top 10 guy. I'm going to have to start all over again, I have it clear in my head, that I'm going to have to rebuild everything I did at lightweight , and nothing better than the initial fight being against a former Strikeforce champion, to show everyone that I came to stay at this weight”, said the Brazilian, who concluded by reaffirming that the weight change will make him better prepared for the fights .

“Now I’m just happy. I don't have to worry. Many people even think that I don't have to cut weight to 77kg, but I'm still going to cut. My dry weight, already lean, in shape, is 80kg, 82kg. I'm still going to cut about 4kg, 5kg from this weight. But it's different from the light ones, which were very difficult for my health. I've been training normally, I'm on a balanced diet, I have good eating habits, I'm weighing 90kg now, training hard, and my body is responding well. I’ve been training with heavier guys, with guys the size I’m going to fight now,” she concluded.

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