{"id":863081,"date":"2026-08-21T10:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T10:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/863081\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T10:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T10:20:09","slug":"41-year-old-rafael-dos-anjos-returns-to-action-after-two-years-at-ufc-332","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/863081\/","title":{"rendered":"41-year-old Rafael dos Anjos returns to action after two years at UFC 332"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Rafael dos Anjos is back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">It\u2019s been two years since we last saw the former UFC Lightweight champion in action, an unfortunate consequence of the knee injury suffered in his last outing versus Geoff Neal. After <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/latest-news\/418475\/ufc-legend-rafael-dos-anjos-undergoes-third-knee-surgery-in-14-months-but-refuses-to-retire-im-fighting-for-legacy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">multiple setbacks and surgeries<\/a>, however, \u201cRDA\u201d is officially set to return versus Alexander Hernandez at UFC 332, which is scheduled for Sat., Oct. 3, 2026, at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">That\u2019s according to a first report from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.br\/mma\/ufc\/artigo\/_\/id\/17144765\/rafael-dos-anjos-retorna-ao-ufc-quase-dois-anos-e-enfrenta-alexander-hernandez-em-outubro\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ESPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">There are several interesting dynamics at play regarding this matchup. For one, Hernandez is moving up to Welterweight for the first time. While dos Anjos has bounced around between 155 and 170 pounds in recent years, Hernandez was competing at Featherweight as recently as April 2024. In addition, there\u2019s an intriguing clash of styles. Hernandez has revitalized his career operating as a counter striker, whereas dos Anjos is one of the sport\u2019s great pressure fighters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Finally, there\u2019s the elephant in the room: dos Anjos is 41 years old and has lost three straight. He was still performing at a high-level during that skid, but one has to wonder how much \u201cRDA\u201d has left in the tank after two more years away and multiple surgeries. Hernandez, conversely, is eight years younger and has won four of his last five bouts, competing consistently while dos Anjos has been recovering.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Anyone backing the former champ to return to the win column?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rafael dos Anjos is back. It\u2019s been two years since we last saw the former UFC Lightweight champion&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396],"class_list":["post-863081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}