One of Rafael dos Anjos’ biggest opponents throughout his career has been his weight cutting. In 2016, “RDA” revealed to have punishing experiences just to make the 155-pound limit, one of which, he says, almost killed him.
Now supposedly more comfortable at 170-pounds, the former lightweight champion went through another episode involving his weight cut. Recently speaking to MMA Junkie, the 35-year-old Brazilian competitor revealed his recent mishap involving an infrared sauna as he prepared for his fight against Michael Chiesa in January.
“I did something bad in my weight cut. I decided to cut the rest of my weight, like the rest of the eight pounds that I had, I decided to do a different type of sauna,” he said. “I usually do exercise, but I decided to do infrared sauna because I found a little gym by the side of the hotel in Raleigh, and they had an infrared sauna, and I felt kind of weird.
“It took me like 10 minutes to break the sweat, and once I broke the sweat, it took me like 30 minutes. I did like 30 minutes, and by the time I got home, that was Thursday night, I felt overheated.
“Over the night, I felt so much headache, and I couldn’t sleep,” he continued. “I was so overheated, and I had to do an ice bath right after weigh-ins, and my body was overheated and I found out later on that these infrared saunas, they heat you inside out. They go right in the middle of your cells; they heat from inside out. I go five rounds with no problem, but for that fight, after the first round, I was pretty much done. I had no energy. That was pretty weird, and I think that was the infrared sauna that messed me up.”
Dos Anjos ended up losing via unanimous decision, and is now on a two-fight losing streak.