Rafael dos Anjos has confirmed a rumor that he passed out for three minutes during a rough weight cut prior to his lightweight title defence against Eddie Alvarez at UFC Fight Night 90 in July of last year.
“I passed out in the bathtub, in the hot tub. I was out for like almost three minutes,” dos Anjos admitted on The MMA Hour. “My coaches were about to call 911 and cancel the fight because I was out on my bed, and they put some ice on my chest, and then I woke up and stayed on my bed for one hour.”
In the end RDA made weight for the fight, but in hindsight perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to press on regardless as he would lose his title to Alvarez by way of TKO in the first round the following night.
“We thought about cancelling the fight but I’m a fighter, I don’t wanna upset the fans,” dos Anjos said. “But thinking back right now, I shouldn’t make that fight because today guys all the time kind of don’t fight because they have weight problems. Khabib (Nurmagomedov), the other day, he didn’t make the fight with (Tony) Ferguson because he had some issues, but it’s fine. That’s past. Now a new division, a new life.”
Dos Anjos had been on a five-fight winning streak at the time and had only lost once in his previous 11 fights, but he’s now coming off back-to-back losses in the division, and that’s what’s convinced him to move up to welterweight for his next bout.
“I said man, God makes everything the right time. “Maybe if I won that fight, I’d still be killing myself to make 155. Then I lost two in a row and I decided to change, but after the fight I knew.”
Dos Anjos is now expected to make his welterweight debut against Tarec Saffiedine at UFC Fight Night 111 in June.
