PAConor McGregor may have suffered a late change of opponent, but his trademark confidence has remained firmly in tact.
The Irishman has been relatively tight lipped over Rafael dos Anjos withdrawal from their lightweight title fight at UFC 196, but he has revealed in a series of tweets that as far as training goes, it is business as usual.
He has reportedly commented on the jump in weight divisions to 170 lbs in order to accommodate new opponent Nate Diaz though.
God bless this hard work. I don't care about weight divisions. I'll run through everyone on the roster. #11Days pic.twitter.com/AAd25Rme73
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) February 24, 2016
McGregor has definitely beefed up for this one.
Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar both turned down the chance to take on the featherweight champion in RDA’s place with there being little time to prepare, according to Dana White, with Nate Diaz accepting the fight subject to it being at welterweight.
According to Ariel Helwani McGregor had no hesitation in accepting such conditions and has told Diaz to ‘get comfortable’.
… McGregor adds one more note:
"Make it 170," he says. "Tell him to get comfortable."
The fight is made. At welterweight. #ufc196
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) February 24, 2016
Meanwhile RDA has taken to Twitter to provide evidence that his foot is indeed broken.
According to the Brazilian’s coach the injury was caused as a result of kicking a sparring partner’s knee last Friday.
Dos Anjos tried to rest over the weekend but unsurprisingly there was no improvement by Monday.
Sorry to all my real fans and @ufc,I never cancel any fight due to injury but accidents happen #Jesus #truechampion pic.twitter.com/wrV58w9KaS
— Rafael dos Anjos (@RdosAnjosMMA) February 24, 2016
Speaking to MMA Fighting Rafael Cordeiro explained:
Unfortunately, an injury happened in his last training Friday. We were sparring, and Rafael threw a kick at the knee of the kid that was training with him. He immediately stopped kicking, put his foot on the ground, and felt a little pain. He put some ice, and couldn’t walk normally.
He put more ice during the weekend to see if he would be able to train on Monday. On Monday, he contacted the UFC and said what happened. He asked to visit the UFC’s doctor, and they showed the fracture.
It was meant to happen, it was a misfortune. Unfortunately, it’s a full contact sport and (injuries) happens. We have to think about what’s next, what will happen, and how long it will take for him to recover. It will take at least three weeks until he’s able to train again, and then we will know when he will be able to fight again, so we can reschedule the fight without any problem.
Dos Anjos’ wife has also reportedly released a statement, translated from Portuguese by Evy Rodrigues, on the fighter’s behalf:
Here is RDA's wife statement in English: pic.twitter.com/Pl5OH4Uaon
— Evy Rodrigues (@vevyrodrigues) February 24, 2016
So the message to any apparent doubters is clear, RDA is not running scared, he is 100 per cent unable to fight.
