A former UFC lightweight champion who’s scheduled to return to the octagon after a 2-year hiatus for the 50th fight of his career recently revealed that he’s gone under the knife three times since his last UFC appearance and spoke about a “terrible” mistake made by one of the surgeons, which caused his injury to become a recurring issue.
The former champion in question is none other than Rafael dos Anjos. The now 41-year-old last fought Geoff Neal at UFC 308 in 2024 and suffered a first-round TKO loss after tearing his ACL.
After an extensive recovery and rehabilitation process, Dos Anjos is finally set to return to the octagon at UFC 332, where he will face Alexander Hernandez in a lightweight bout.
Former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos talks about his injuries and what went wrong in the first 2 surgeries
Earlier today, on The Ariel Helwani Show, Rafael dos Anjos revealed that after the UFC 308 loss, he had a meniscus surgery during which the doctor stitched up his meniscus. Four or five months after the operation, dos Anjos’ meniscus tore again, and at that time, he had to get it removed. However, the doctor left a couple of stitches inside his knee, which was causing inflammation and preventing him from extending his knee fully, and to get that fixed, he had to get a third surgery.
“I had three surgeries back-to-back. After the Geoff Neal fight, I had meniscus surgery, and the doctor in Brazil made a mistake. He actually tried to stitch up my meniscus, which was a terrible mistake… Four or five months after the surgery, my meniscus tore again, so I had to redo it. I had to have the meniscus removed, and the doctor in Austin, Texas, left a couple of stitches inside my knee, believe it or not.”
“It was causing inflammation. I couldn’t get full extension, and then I had surgery for the third time at the beginning of this year.”
At 41, the Brazilian veteran is currently on a three-fight losing streak but remains determined to keep competing and snap it. Dos Anjos hopes to fight a couple more times before potentially retiring, as he told Helwani during the same sit-down.
“For a second, I thought, ‘Man, this is it,’ but I don’t know, something inside of me that always tells me keep on going. I don’t feel like this is it yet.”
Check out Rafael dos Anjos’ comments below:
