Every now and then a fighter whom you’d never imagine being a
staple of the sport shows up and just keeps on fighting.
Rafael dos
Anjos is that fighter. Coming into “UFC Vegas 78,” he’s the
owner of the most fight time in
Ultimate Fighting Championship history. You’d
never think of Dos Anjos as the man who has always been there.
Maybe
Jim
Miller.
Benson
Henderson, possibly. But no, Dos Anjos has always been the guy.
This weekend, he’s back again and taking on the tough
Vicente
Luque. Luque is coming back from some rough times, having been
sidelined for a year due to a brain bleed in his last fight with
Geoff
Neal that could have very well cost him his life.
In today’s issue of Aftermath, one that features an all-Brazilian
showdown, we will be attempting to answer the question: What can
the smaller Dos Anjos do to outmuscle Luque? We will also be
looking at how Luque deals with a pressure fighter like Dos
Anjos.
Unanswered Questions
With the extent of Luque’s injuries in his last fight, the
unanswered question is how well he has recovered physically and
mentally. A brain bleed can often lead to death and requires
significant time off. In the context of this fight, Luque’s first
fight back, how will he be mentally against Dos Anjos? A near-death
experience changes a person and in the case of a fighter, that
change can be negative. Luque, who is aggressive and forward-coming
by nature, may come out passive and timid. That would be a
disaster, but understandable. This isn’t a thing we can analyze,
nor is the type of thing we normally delve this deep into. It’s
only Luque and his camp that know if he is ready to be back in the
cage.
Luque will have a problem because he won’t be able to push Dos
Anjos to the fence to tee off. Dos Anjos enjoys coming forward,
smashing the legs, and ducking under for takedowns. Fortunately for
Luque, crowding the kicker doesn’t seem to bother him. Against
Niko
Price, Luque ate 33 of 36 low kicks yet managed to land 37 of
his own.