{"id":216471,"date":"2017-01-08T05:52:28","date_gmt":"2017-01-08T13:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=216471"},"modified":"2017-01-08T05:52:51","modified_gmt":"2017-01-08T13:52:51","slug":"rafael-dos-anjos-explains-move-welterweight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rafael-dos-anjos\/rafael-dos-anjos-explains-move-welterweight\/","title":{"rendered":"Rafael Dos Anjos explains his move to welterweight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After back-to-back losses to Eddie Alvarez <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/videos\/video-tony-ferguson-defeats-rafael-dos-anjos-highlights\/\">and Tony Ferguson<\/a>, former lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos has announced his intention to move to the 170-pound welterweight division. <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rafael-dos-anjos\/rafael-dos-anjos-announces-plans-move-welterweight\/\">The former champ made this announcement on Twitter earlier this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I reached the top of LW,it&#39;s been a hard journey make weight every time,now I want to fight at my best,I have new goals, I&#39;m moving to WW<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Rafael dos Anjos (@RdosAnjosMMA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RdosAnjosMMA\/status\/817448579140698112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 6, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Though his current losing streak surely has something to do with his choice to move up a weight class, Dos Anjos explained that the main reason for this planned shift is the difficulty he has making the lightweight division&#8217;s 155-pound limit. He explained this difficulty in an interview with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/2017\/1\/7\/14198648\/rafael-dos-anjos-explains-move-to-welterweight-ufc\" target=\"_blank\">MMAFighting.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;When I was 16 years old, I weighed 176 pounds,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It\u2019s just too much for me. I already got the belt. And for [the money] I\u2019m making now, it&#8217;s not worth it. One day, if there\u2019s a superfight or something that gives me good money, I can make this sacrifice and go back to 155 again, but not now.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;My body changed between 2014 and 2015,\u201d he continued. &#8220;I fought five times in 11 months, during that run for the title. I don\u2019t see anyone doing this. I see [Donald] Cerrone doing this, but I don\u2019t see other doing this. I walk around with 187, 188 pounds, easy, and to cut this weight five times in 11 months was too much.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I eat well, but after that I felt that my body got bigger. I was holding the weight more. It was tough to make weight against Cerrone, and I passed out three times making weight for the Eddie Alvarez fight. One day you get to the limit.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Dos Anjos also touched on how he thinks he&#8217;ll fair against the bigger, stronger men of the welterweight division.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;I don\u2019t think 15 pounds will make such a big difference,\u201d he said. &#8220;The other guys are bigger and stronger, for sure, but I\u2019m used to training with guys that big. I also think that they are big, but they cut weight. They will go through something I won\u2019t. I&#8217;ll have to cut weight for 170, but I&#8217;ll cut less. I fought well at 155, but I don&#8217;t think I ever came close to my best at 155. I think I\u2019ll get to my best at 170 pounds.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>How do you think Rafael Dos Anjos will do at welterweight? Sound off, PENN Nation!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After back-to-back losses to Eddie Alvarez and Tony Ferguson, former lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos has announced his intention to move to the 170-pound welterweight division. The former champ made this announcement on Twitter earlier this week. I reached the top of LW,it&#39;s been a hard journey make weight every time,now I want to fight [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":198292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10109],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rafael Dos Anjos explains his move to welterweight | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After back-to-back losses, former lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos has announced his intention to move to the 170-pound welterweight division.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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