Rafael Dos Anjos Felt Stronger in Lightweight Return: I Did What Guys Were Doing to Me

Paul Felder received near universal praise for stepping up on less than one week’s notice to save the UFC Fight Night 182 headliner, but for Rafael dos Anjos, the change in opponent was something of a game-planning nightmare.

Despite spending the entirety of his camp preparing for a hard-nosed grappler in Islam Makhachev, dos Anjos was able to make the necessary changeskl to earn a split-decision triumph over Felder on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

“We had to make some adjustments with the change in opponents. I was training to defend takedowns against a southpaw and in five days, I had to fight an orthodox striker,” dos Anjos said. “I was kind of thrown off in the first rounds, trying to find the distance and get closer to him because he is a right-handed guy, so I had to change my game plan and try to grapple, take him to the ground. In just five days I had to do everything I didn't train to do. But we managed to adjust and adapt there and get the win.”

When the action was in the center of the cage, Felder held his own with a variety of punching combinations, elbows and kicks to the legs. However, when dos Anjos was able to make it a grinding affair, that’s when the things changed. Felder struggled in the clinch and was taken down a total of six times in the 25-minute affair, and that proved to be the difference. The fight wasn’t as close as the final verdict, which was a product of judge Chris Lee’s curious 48-47 scorecard for Felder.

Dos Anjos said it was difficult planning for an opponent who hadn’t invested in an entire camp. After the bout, Felder, who had been training for a marathon, admitted that he had done very little in the way of MMA-focused preparation.

“It was the strategy that we put together in the last five days. It is difficult for you to fight a guy who enters the fight saying he has nothing to lose. It's complicated,” Dos Anjos said. “The guy will get in there and just do whatever, it’s like playing roulette.

“But Paul Felder got in there, he’s a really tough guy. I thought that at different times during the fight he would give up, but the guy was still going strong. I managed to get my game on, take him down, control the fight, hit well standing and leave with the win.”

Dos Anjos looked to be right at home in his first 155-pound fight in more than four years. The 36-year-old Brazilian is coming off an eight bout stint at welterweight that saw him lose four of his previous five Octagon appearances heading into Saturday night.

“I felt better than at welterweight,” dos Anjos said. “I managed to do what the guys were doing to me. I noticed that every time I wanted to go to the fence, clinch, push him against it, I could do it. Even when he managed to turn around, I managed to get back. I felt stronger and it was the way I was imagining it. When we have a longer, less troubled camp than this, things will get even better.”