Rafael Dos Anjos: I Would Crush ‘Small Guy’ Conor McGregor

While UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos is headed for his first title defense when he faces the surging Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in the main event of December 19’s UFC on FOX 17 from Orlando, Florida; he, like many other fighters in both the UFC 145 and 155-pound divisions, can’t seem to shake the looming specter of a bout with Irish loudmouth Conor McGregor.

The interim featherweight champ basically called out every top-ranked fighter in his and dos Anjos’ divisions at the GO BIG presser, and the lightweight champ was not surprisingly the butt of one of McGregor’s best jokes, the now-infamous “red panty night” quote.

There’s been talk that McGregor could move up to lightweight, where he won a Cage Warriors FC lightweight title in his native Ireland, if he can get past official featherweight champion Jose Aldo at December 12’s UFC 194, but dos Anjos told FOX Sports he’s not even interested in taking on a “small guy” like McGregor:

“I don’t care about (Conor) McGregor. He’s a small guy, I would crush him. he wants to take my title I would love to crush him, but right now I don’t think he’s a big challenge. There are bigger names to beat.”

“RDA” also criticized the legitimacy of McGregor’s title, calling it a fake belt as compared to the real one he won by dominating Anthony Pettis at last March’s UFC 185. Now, he’s focused on avenging a loss to oft-injured yet dominant contender Khabib Nurmagomedov after he beats Cerrone:

“I have honor on my belt. Not a fake belt,” dos Anjos said. “I have a real belt because I fought against the best. That’s why I think for me it’s most important. Right now my focus is on this Cerrone fight, but then I want Khabib (Nurmagomedov) because I want to clean that loss off my record.”

The lightweight boss then ended the interview by proclaiming his overall goal, which is to fight the best no matter whom that may be:

“More important is to fight against the best. You do it the hard way, you can’t do it the easy way. That’s what’s most important for me,” dos Anjos said. “I go back home, before I go to sleep, I put my head on my pillow, I know I fought against the best, that’s the most important thing to me.”