The former UFC Lightweight champion, Rafael Dos Anjos was booked to face the biggest star of UFC, Conor McGregor to defend his lightweight title at the main event of UFC 196. But Dos Anjos was forced to pull out from this fight after he broke his foot in the training camp for this fight.
As a replacement for Rafael Dos Anjos, ‘The Stockton Slugger’ Nate Diaz entered the Octagon to avenge his first loss against Conor McGregor and the rest is history. Diaz defeated McGregor via second-round submission and gave him the first defeat of his UFC career.
This fight provided them a platform to sell their rematch as one of the highest-grossing pay-per-view in UFC history and Rafael Dos Anjos is somehow related to all this as well. Dos Anjos and Diaz also hold history between each other as RDA holds a unanimous decision win against Nate Diaz at UFC on Fox: Dos Santos vs Miocic.
There is one more incident that is related to this fight at UFC 196, which very few people know. Rafael Dos Anjos had a fun run-in with Nate Diaz just two days after this fight and talking about this in his latest interview with Ariel Helwani for MMA hour, RDA says,
“I was coming out of the doctor, right after the fight, I was coming out of the doctor to do something like a check-up and then I was hungry. I was in LA and — I’ve never told this story to anybody, only to close friends. So I was hungry driving back home and then I put on Google some Whole Foods around me.”
“Then I found some Whole Foods and went there to grab a bite. It was me and my wife. Then I had a little cart that you put your knee and then you start sliding, like a little scooter…and guess who was at the hot bar getting food? Nate Diaz.” {H/t BloodyElbow}
“I look at him and he starts sizing me up,” Rafael Dos Anjos further detailed about the funny altercation with Nate Diaz
Rafael Dos Anjos has shown interest in a rematch against Nate Diaz several times after their first fight but this match never got finalized. Luckily enough both of them didn’t have a fight on the food card, detailing more about the run-in, RDA continued,
“I look at him and he starts sizing me up, I looked at him and it looks like he was going to fight me with a broken foot…my wife was so afraid because she was near me and she said, ‘I saw your hair doing that pointing up like a dog ready to fight’.”
“I was really ready to fight. He said something like ‘get better’ or something like that. I couldn’t hear well but I said, ‘Okay, congratulations on your fight’ and he walked away.”
Also Read: “Don’t disrespect me,” Nate Diaz not interested in Khamzat Chimaev, The Borz fires back.
