Rafael dos Anjos is looking for new life at 170 pounds.
A former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight title holder, dos Anjos simply couldn’t deal with the amount of stress put on his body during weight cuts. The Brazilian bruiser decided to move down to welterweight.
He’ll make his 170-pound debut against Tarec Saffiedine this Saturday (June 17) inside the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore. The bout will be featured on the main card of UFC Fight Night 111.
In a recent interview with A.G. Fight, dos Anjos talked about feeling like a new fighter at welterweight (via Flo Combat):
“I’m 32 years old and I’m a new fighter. At lightweight, I had already done what I had to do and it was difficult to make the weight. I think I’ve lost my last two fights for that reason. If I had won, I might even be trying [to keep fighting at lightweight] and even die. I was afraid of death. I saw that my body was different [when I was cutting weight], I had a fast heartbeat. Surely this was affecting my performances and I couldn’t do [that] anymore. But I think I can reach the top of the [welterweight] division and that is my goal.”
The main card of UFC Fight Night 111 begins at 8 a.m. ET on UFC Fight Pass.
