With one fight left on his UFC contract, Rafael dos Anjos reveals uncertainty surrounding future

Former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos is just one fight away from the expiry of his current contract with the UFC following which his future with the promotion is uncertain. With a good performance on the last fight per his current contract, Rafael hopes to re-sign with the UFC where he's spent a major part of his professional fighting career.

Speaking to MMA Fighting recently, dos Anjos revealed the air of uncertainty surrounding his future with the UFC and also suggested that he would like to fight sometime in June or July since he previously fought back in January this year.

“I want to fight. I fought in January, so June or July would be good dates. I’m going for the last fight in my contract with the UFC, so we have to see if the UFC wants to re-sign me. It’s a bunch of things."

dos Anjos stated that his relationship with the promotion and its president Dana White is very solid and having almost 30 fights under his belt in the organization, he would love to re-sign with the UFC given that's what his employers also want.

“I’m in the UFC for many years, since 2008, and the UFC is a very solid company,” dos Anjos added. “I have a great relationship with Dana White, I have almost 30 fights in the organization, and I would like to re-sign with the UFC. That’s what I want, but it’s not only up to me, it’s up to them as well, if they want to re-sign me.”

While dos Anjos ideally wants to continue fighting in the UFC, a release from the promotion would make him a pretty sought after free agent who could attract lucrative offers from other top promotions such as Bellator, ONE Fighting Championship and PFL. ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong is a close friend of dos Anjos and he even attended the promotion's event held in Tokyo, Japan back in 2019.

Presently though, the only thing the Brazilian fighter is focusing on is his next fight which will be his last per his current contract. Though dos Anjos has a few names in mind for his next opponent, he isn't willing to call anyone out at this point of time.

“I’m in a situation that I can’t call anyone out. I’m coming off a loss and I know that’s in the past and I will bounce back, but what the UFC offers me, something that makes sense… I think Pettis would make sense for the history. The market is starting to move now. Stephen Thompson and I, there was some talk in the past, so I think that could be the fight. The division is very jammed, let’s see how it plays out.”