Rafael dos Anjos in photo by Josh Hedges.
Evan Dunham got injured and Dana White didn’t dally in finding a replacement: he invited Rafael dos Anjos to face Australia’s George Sotiropoulos at the June 2 UFC 132 show in Las Vegas. Clues to the likely reason for the UFC president’s choice can be found in last month’s issue of GRACIEMAG, #169: Dana loves good Jiu-Jitsu.
“George Sotiropoulos is one of my favorite Jiu-Jitsu fighters. When he faced Joe Stevenson it was an absolute ground war. He was great against Joe Lauzon too,” said the UFC top brass in the issue of GRACIEMAG, in a conversation about the gentle art.
A Roberto Gordo black belt, Rafael dos Anjos is another of the promotion’s slickest grapplers. Recently, he even put on his gi and won a championship in Rio without great difficulty.
“Dos Anjos has had the fight of the night and submission of the night at other UFC events and Sotiropoulos has won fight of the night twice before. I expect a great fight between two of the best Jiu-Jitsu guys in the lightweight division,” remarked Dana.
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