Rafael dos Anjos on final fight of UFC deal, uncertain of future with promotion

Former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos is on the final fight of his current UFC deal, and is uncertain what the future holds beyond that.

He’s hoping to fight again in the coming months, and with a little luck, re-sign with the UFC, where he’s spent the vast majority of his MMA career thus far.

“I want to fight. I fought in January, so June or July would be good dates,” dos Anjos told MMA Fighting recently. “I’m going for the last fight in my contract with the UFC, so we have to see if the UFC wants to re-sign me. It’s a bunch of things.

“I’m in the UFC for many years, since 2008, and the UFC is a very solid company,” dos Anjos added. “I have a great relationship with Dana White, I have almost 30 fights in the organization, and I would like to re-sign with the UFC. That’s what I want, but it’s not only up to me, it’s up to them as well, if they want to re-sign me.”

While dos Anjos is hoping to re-sign with the UFC, he would no doubt be a hot commodity if he became a free agent, and could probably expect offers from the likes of Bellator and ONE Championship. In fact, the former UFC champ has a close friendship with ONE boss Chatri Sityodtong, and even attended a ONE event in Tokyo in 2019.

For the moment, of course, dos Anjos’ focus is on closing out his current UFC contract with a big one. He’s not sure who he’ll fight, but is reluctant to make callouts.

“I’m in a situation that I can’t call anyone out. I’m coming off a loss and I know that’s in the past and I will bounce back, but what the UFC offers me, something that makes sense… I think Pettis would make sense for the history. The market is starting to move now. Stephen Thompson and I, there was some talk in the past, so I think that could be the fight. The division is very jammed, let’s see how it plays out.”

Where do you think Rafael dos Anjos will end up after his current deal concludes?