Former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos is no stranger being on the receiving end of trash talk. He was bombarded by a lot of it during his scheduled (then cancelled) title fight against Conor McGregor at UFC 196 in 2016.
The Brazilian is once again faced with a talker of an opponent in Colby Covington, whom he faces next for the UFC interim 170-pound title. And having experienced insults from “The Notorious”, dos Anjos is not at all fazed by any of Covington’s remarks.
“I grew up in Brazil in the favelas, man. Bullies, trash talking, doesn’t work with me,” dos Anjos said during the UFC 225 media conference call on Thursday (transcript via MMA Fighting). “But I think Colby, he’s just trying [to be Conor McGregor]. Conor does it well. Conor, he’s a rich man, he makes a lot of money.”
“He’s a businessman, and I can respect that. But Colby, he’s just a worse version of Conor McGregor. He’s trying to be like Conor, but when he loses to me, his career is done. All he has is talk, nothing else.”
“Everybody saw him at media day in New York. When he sees people, he just sticks on his phone and he doesn’t even look around,” dos Anjos added. “This guy’s so fake. When he’s on the phone, he grows his balls. But on fight night, his balls shrink. I’m going to expose him.”
The two men had actually gone back-and-forth in what turned out to be quite a heated conference call, but all the talk will end on June 9th, when they co-headline UFC 225 in Chicago.
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