Rafael dos Anjos will no longer be fighting Islam Makhachev at UFC 267 on October 30th as he has only just recently undergone knee surgery.
It’s been reported that RDA is still having trouble bending his leg after the procedure, so he had no choice other than to cancel the fight, though it seems that Makhachev is less than impressed by his decision.
“I don’t believe that you’re injured… again,” Makhachev wrote to dos Anjos.
“Do you really think I would fake a surgery?” dos Anjos replied. “Coming out of another terrible injury. Unlike you I have a family that depends on me and I don’t have another man paying my bills.”
This is now the third time that a fight between the two has been nixed as RDA first withdrew from their originally scheduled bout at UFC 254 in October last year after testing positive for Covid-19, while Makhachev then had to cancel their rescheduled fight a month later due to an injury.
Losing RDA vs. Makhachev is a big blow for the UFC 267 card, especially since it’s also emerged that the co-main event bantamweight title rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan has also been scratched from the proceedings due to the champion suffering from a neck injury.
However, as things stand it appears that the UFC is looking to keep Makhachev on the card, with his manager Ali Abdel-Aziz suggesting Tony Ferguson or Dan Hooker as potential replacements for RDA.
