Since he began his professional career in 2004, Rafael Dos Anjos has fought at the 155-pound division. But for 2017, the 32-year-old fighter decided to move up to welterweight, at 170-pounds.
It was a decision which was a necessity, more than anything else. In a Q&A session with ESPN.com, the former UFC lightweight champion revealed that it was between 2014 and 2015 when he felt changes in his body. Specifically, he had more trouble cutting weight, and it was bothering him to the point that it was affecting his performance.
For his title fight against Eddie Alvarez, Dos Anjos detailed the grueling moments he had the night before the scheduled weigh-ins.
“My coaches took me out of the bath and placed me on the bed,” Dos Anjos recalled. “I came back for a couple seconds and passed out again. I came back and passed out a third time. I was almost out for three minutes, they said. At one point, they said, ‘Let’s call 911 and cancel the fight.’ I woke up and asked them what was going on. And after all that, I still didn’t know if I had made the weight.”
“So I had to check my weight, but I couldn’t stand up. I lied down with a cold towel on my head. It took me about 40 minutes to get up. I checked my weight, and it said 155. If I hadn’t been on weight, there’s no way I could do any more. I couldn’t do it. On the walk to the weigh-ins, I was just feeling miserable.”
As Dos Anjos recalled, things only worsened during fight night itself.
“I have a strong mind, so I was feeling ready to go,” Dos Anjos said. “One strange thing, though, my training partners noticed during warm-ups that I wasn’t sweating as much as usual. My body kind of shut down, and I wasn’t sweating.”
“When I got hit in the fight, it wasn’t like — I’ve gotten hit harder than that before — but I just lost my legs. It was weird. I want to give credit to Alvarez, but for sure, the weight cut affected me a little bit.”
Dos Anjos ended up losing to Alvarez via first round TKO, where he also dropped his title in the process. He carried on his losing ways in his next fight against Tony Ferguson, where he went through the exact same weight cut ordeal that he did in preparation for Alvarez.
When asked if he still plans to fight at 155-pounds, Dos Anjos is not considering it as of the moment.
“I’m killing myself to make 155, and [without the championship] I’m not making much money,” Dos Anjos said. “I would make 155 pounds for a super fight or something, but for what I’m making today? No, it’s not worth making 155.”