We already knew that Rafael dos Anjos win over Anthony Pettis was impressive. What makes his win even more impressive is the fact that the new lightweight champion had admitted that he competed with a torn MCL.
In the post-fight press conference, dos Anjos opened up about the injury he suffered weeks before the main event.
“The day that [the UFC] was shooting the Countdown with me, the same day they were shooting some part of my sparring session, I bumped my knee,” the champion said. “And I think for the fact that I’d been so active, my whole career I’ve never had a knee injury. My whole life. My knee’s really, really tough. I’ve got a strong knee. But for the first time this happened. And it was like three weeks ago — I couldn’t grapple, I couldn’t wrestle since then
“And I don’t know if you guys noticed, but I did a kick at the open work outs. I didn’t use any kicks because I was kind of dehydrated and I didn’t want my injury to get worse. So everything [would go] perfect during the fight.”
The injury will likely result in dos Anjos taking his time to defend the belt (although he remains optimistic about his return date).
“Actually I didn’t go to the doctor yet,” he said. “I need to do an MRI just to make sure. But I think it’s not bad. I will not need surgery. I just felt a pop, but I don’t think I’ll need surgery.”
