Dos Anjos claims Makhachev demanded $1MILLION fight him at UFC 272

Rafael dos Anjos claims Islam Makhachev demanded $1MILLION to fight him on short notice at UFC 272 and slams Russian for ‘playing little games’

  • Rafael dos Anjos had to deal with withdrawal of Rafael Fiziev at UFC 272  
  • Islam Makhachev offered to jump in and take Fiziev’s place on short notice 
  • But Dana White came out publicly and said Makhachev ‘turned it down’ 
  • Dos Anjos is now claiming Russian demanded $1m to take the challenge 

Rafael dos Anjos has claimed Islam Makhachev demanded $1million (£761,000) to step in on short notice and fight him at UFC 272.

Makhachev offered to replace Rafael Fiziev after he pulled out injured and it would have been a massive coup for the UFC to add such a high profile fight to the card. 

But Dana White then publicly stated that Makhachev turned down the bout, embarrassing the rising lightweight star. 


Islam Makhachev wanted $1million to fight Rafael dos Anjos, the Brazilian claimed 

Renato Moicano was battered by Dos Anjos after stepping up to take Rafael Fiziev’s spot

The UFC president told Barstool Sports: ‘I thought we had it done. When I went to bed one of the nights there, I thought it was done. Woke up the next morning and found out (Makhachev) turned it down.

‘It’s, ‘What’s the best fight that you can possibly make?’ The best fight that we could possibly make would’ve been him and Islam. RDA vs. Islam. Islam turns down the fight, ‘What’s the best fight you could make?’ Moicano.’

It was Moicano who stepped in and was well beaten by Dos Anjos on Saturday night. 

And now Dos Anjos is claiming that Makhachev asked for a huge amount of money to take him on, telling the MMA Hour: ‘I heard he asked for like $1 million or something to take the fight. But, no other explanation.

‘It feels great [that he has to fight Beneil Dariush still]. I even texted Beneil [and said] now I got your fight back. 

‘That’s the price he pays for playing these little games. He had his title shot secured now he’s gotta fight another one.

‘You guys heard what Dana said. Islam didn’t take the fight. Islam said 165 [pounds] like Bobby Green with him was ’60, right? Then he said 170 and then they called me like, ‘Hey, Islam wants to go at 170.’ 

‘I said, okay, I’ll go 170, no problem. And I even showed the picture of my scale here. After training, I was 171. They did a video, they sent it to Sean Shelby, that’s when they took the fight.

Dos Anjos says Makhachev has paid the price and now has to fight Beneil Dariush 

‘The next morning, ‘Oh, no, no. We’re not taking the fight,’ he continued. ‘I think it was that he tried to call [my] bluff. That’s what it was. They probably thought that ‘RDA’ would never take this fight at 170. 

‘But you know what, I was training, I didn’t want to waste a whole fight camp, hadn’t fought for 16 months, I just wanted to go in there and fight someone.’

Makhachev’s clash with Beneil Dariush will be remade now and the winner is likely to have the next lightweight title shot against the winner of Justin Gaethje vs Charles Oliveira.  




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