Last night, in the co-main event of UFC 215, long-time welterweight contender Neil Magny moved to slow the welterweight rise of former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos. Regrettably, the fight went disastrously for Magny, as he was taken down and abruptly submitted by his dangerous foe.
In the immediate fallout of his submission loss to dos Anjos, Magny took to his official Instagram account to issue a quick statement on the fight. While he clearly isn’t happy with the result, he is pure class in defeat.
A post shared by Neil Magny (@neil_magny170) on
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“I am truly fortunate to have been able to do what I love tonight,” Magny said in his Instagram post. “Wasn’t the outcome that I trained for, but that’s life. Thank you guys for all of the love and support. Congratulations to my opponent. I will come back better.”
While Magny will now have to return to the drawing board, we know that his opponent dos Anjos has set his sights on UFC welterweight champ Tyron Woodley.
“This division’s wide open; all the top-five, top-six guys in this division have lost to the champion or to the last challenger, which was Demian Maia,” dos Anjos told reporters after UFC 215 (h/t MMAJunkie.com). “(Stephen) Thompson lost twice to Woodley already. I’m the new blood in this division. I was getting ready to fight Woodley if Maia didn’t take the fight, but he ended up taking the fight. But I was getting ready for it, so here I am.”
advertisement – continue reading below“One thing I can be sure, is we’re going to fight,” dos Anjos added. “I’m not going to let him walk around, and I’m going to make sure I push the pace. I’m not saying I will not use my strategy. Of course I will. But I will walk forward. I have confidence in me, in my cardio, and I’m going to make him work.”
Were you surprised at the outcome of Neil Magny’s fight with Rafael dos Anjos?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 9/10/2017.