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UFC superstar Conor “Notorious” McGregor retired from mixed martial arts last Saturday and his fellow competitors are already trying to persuade him back into the Octagon. After UFC Women’s Bantamweight and Featherweight Champion Amanda Nunes defended her featherweight strap in the main event of UFC 250 on June 6, McGregor took to Twitter to announce his retirement.
He wrote, “Hey guys I’ve decided to retire from fighting. Thank you all for the amazing memories! What a ride it’s been!” However, many fans, fighters and analysts believe that Notorious’ retirement will be shortlived — this is the 31-year-old fighter’s third retirement in five years, he is physically in his prime and he has many big matchups out there for him.
One fighter who wants to share the Octagon with McGregor is former UFC lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos. In a callout on Twitter, “RDA” said that he would fight McGregor at either lightweight, welterweight or in a 165-pound catchweight match. The former champion wrote: “Let’s do it [Conor McGregor] if you’re looking for a fight I’m the guy. 155, 165 or 170 you know I’m always game. F—k this retirement s—t.”
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RDA & McGregor Have a History, Were Scheduled to Fight in 2016 But RDA Pulled Out Due to Injury
The two men have a long history, “RDA” and McGregor were scheduled to fight in 2016 as the main event for UFC 196. It was supposed to be a champion vs. champion lightweight superfight — RDA was the lightweight champion at the time and McGregor was the featherweight champion.
The fight never came to fruition as RDA broke his foot less than two weeks before the event. Dos Anjos was replaced by Nate Diaz who McGregor fought in a welterweight bout. McGregor lost the fight by second-round submission.
Dos Anjos lost his lightweight belt to Eddie Alvarez in his next fight, and McGregor eventually won the lightweight belt by defeating Alvarez. RDA and McGregor have never been booked to fight again.
RDA Is Currently Ranked No. 9 in the Welterweight Division
After RDA lost his lightweight strap to Alvarez, he competed one more time in the division. He took on Tony Ferguson and lost the bout by unanimous decision. After the back-to-back defeats, RDA moved up to welterweight where he found immediate success.
Dos Anjos won three matches in a row at welterweight, defeating Tarec Saffiedine, Neil Magny and former UFC Welterweight Champion Robbie Lawler. RDA’s victory over Lawler set him up for an interim welterweight title fight, a match against Colby Covington.
The former lightweight champ was unable to capture gold against Covington, losing the fight by unanimous decision. Since that fight, RDA has gone 1-3 in his last four bouts, defeating Kevin Lee and losing to current Welterweight Champion Kamaru Usman and Leon Edward. RDA’s most recent fight was in January 2020 when he lost to Michael Chiesa by unanimous decision.
Dos Anjos currently sits at No. 9 in the official UFC welterweight rankings, and he has a professional MMA record of 29-13.
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