After COVID-19 Recovery, Rafael dos Anjos Awaits Rescheduled Bout With Islam Makhachev

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Rafael dos Anjos is ready to get back in the cage soon.

After 14 days of quarantining and recovery from his positive COVID-19 diagnosis, dos Anjos posted on his Instagram on Friday about his first training session with Emerson Falcao at Nova Uniao. Dos Anjos was originally booked at UFC 254 to face Islam Makhachev on Oct. 24, and the former champ is hoping that he can get that fight re-scheduled.

Right after his training ended, dos Anjos spoke with Sherdog. “I got really bad in the first week,” he admitted. “A lot of pain all over my body, fever, strong headache. Monday I was feeling better and did some running and today [Friday] I did some striking training with Falcao.”

Dos Anjos and his manager are waiting for a call from the Ultimate Fighting Championship to finally decide if his fight with Makhachev will be postponed or if they will bring another opponent.

“I believe that sickness postponed everything three weeks, once they couldn't find an opponent for him in Abu Dhabi. [I] hope they can [replace] my fight with Makhachev as soon as possible [in Las Vegas]. Nov. 15 or 21 would be great. We are just waiting for a UFC call to set up the date,” dos Anjos explained.

The Brazilian also spoke about his great experience doing his first camp in Nova Uniao.

“I just have great things to say,” dos Anjos said excitedly. “For the first time in my life I did a camp with the whole team supporting me. I’ve always heard great things about [head coach Andre] Pederneiras, but this experience here was above all my expectations. Besides having a great team of tough lightweights that provided me great sparring every day, Pederneiras knows everything about all fighting aspects. I was having a hard time to find sparring to train in California, and here I found everything I needed.”

The only Brazilian to ever capture the UFC lightweight title, dos Anjos is also being helped by the same nutritionist of Jose Aldo to make his return to lightweight possible. After a sequence of five losses in six fights at welterweight, dos Anjos will make his return to lightweight. He will presumably face one of champion Khabib Nurmagomedov’s chief training partners, Islam Makhachev. The Russian is currently ranked #13 at lightweight at on the Sherdog official rankings, getting there by winning each of his last six bouts.