Well, this came out of nowhere.
The traditionally soft-spoken Rafael dos Anjos has decided that he needs to talk more in order to get noticed in the hype-first, fight-second UFC. Despite winning seven of his last eight fighters and knocking out both Ben Henderson and Jason High, dos Anjos expressed his discontent with the way the UFC chooses to promote fighters like Conor McGregor who are better on the mic.
“I feel people who just got in the UFC getting a lot of hype on those guys, like Conor McGregor,” dos Anjos said on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “The guy just got his third fight in the UFC and there’s a lot of hype on this type of guy because they talk, they talk a lot. I’m not this type of guy.”
The problem is that it took a long time for dos Anjos to embrace the fact that fans want to see fighters who can talk and not just dominate in the Octagon.
“People see me because I’m winning my fights. That’s how I want people seeing me,” he continued. “But I was thinking about it. I need talk more, call people out. It’s not who I am, but I feel I need to do this more to bring more attention for me.
“I’ve been on the road for a long time, I’ve been in the UFC for six years. I moved here to California three years ago to chase my dreams and, since I moved to California, I’ve improved a lot my skills and I have shown this. But I feel that people don’t give the respect that I deserve. I keep beating people. I keep winning my fights, trying to reach my goal, trying to get my belt. That’s what I want.”
Dos Anjos put his new ‘talk more’ plan into effect right away, claiming that his next opponent Nate Diaz doesn’t deserve to fight him at UFC on FOX 13.
“I think people started talking more about me after that fight, but I think my big dream is still coming,” dos Anjos said. “I have a fight against a top guy, Nathan Diaz, on Dec. 13. My focus is on that fight right now, and I’m looking forward beating him and getting my title shot.”
Even though the fight will get him a lot of attention, dos Anjos says Diaz doesn’t deserve the match after being inactive for the past 13 months.
“To be honest, I think no, he doesn’t deserve (this fight),” dos Anjos said. “But like I said, I accepted this fight because I wanna be active, I wanna be in shape, and I wanna fight at the same time of the title fight because we have a good time to fight next. I wanna have my chance. I wanna be the first Brazilian to get this belt. I wanna get this belt to Brazil.”
