Saturday morning, American fight fans tuned into UFC Fight Pass for a highly anticipated morning of fights in Singapore, headlined by a women’s bantamweight showdown between Holly Holm and Bethe Correia. On the main card however, former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos picked up a unanimous decision win over Tarec Saffiedine in his UFC welterweight debut.
The win over Saffiedine was a much needed one for dos Anjos, who was riding a 2-fight skid going into his welterweight debut that saw him drop a 1st round TKO to Eddie Alvarez to lose the lightweight title nearly a year ago before then dropping a unanimous decision to Tony Ferguson. Following Dos Anjos’ win over Saffiedine, UFC lightweight #1 contender Khabib Nurmagomedov called for a fight between Dos Anjos and top ranked welterweight Jorge Masvidal:
I want see RDA vs Masvidal.
This fight will be a great match up @ufc #welterweightadvertisement – continue reading below— khabib nurmagomedov (@TeamKhabib) June 17, 2017
That didn’t sit too well with Jorge Masvidal:
I want to see you make weight and @WonderboyMMA is next so tell your buddy he can wait until he is ranked top 5 #easymoney #faketweet #ali https://t.co/JZExToHn7R
advertisement – continue reading below— Jorge Masvidal UFC (@GamebredFighter) June 17, 2017
Nurmagomedov of course is coming off a dominant submission win over Michael Johnson at UFC 205, following that win, Nurmagomedov was expected to face Tony Ferguson for the interim lightweight championship. The day before the fight however, Nurmagomedov was taken to the emergency room and pulled from the fight due to complications from his weight cut, which was later revealed to be due to ‘The Eagle’ not getting blood to his liver.
Masvidal on the other hand, as he stated, is looking to fight former UFC welterweight contender Stephen Thompson when ‘Wonderboy’ returns to the Octagon following an injury sustained in his rematch with Tyron Woodley.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/17/2017.