It’d quite be an understatement to say “Rafael dos Anjos has had a whirlwind of a mixed martial arts career”. He’s a Brazilian fighter with a 30-13 record that has experienced the sport’s highest highs after fighting for the UFC since 2008. After losing his title to Eddie Alvarez in 2016, dos Anjos’ career has been plagued with inconsistency going 5-5 in the company since he lost his belt.

His last fight was a unanimous decision win against Paul Felder on less than a week’s notice, which may have given some life to a waning career for dos Anjos. He was scheduled for a highly anticipated “Battle of the Rafaels” against hungry rising talent, Rafael Fiziev, in the UFC 272 card planned for this upcoming Saturday, March 5th. Unfortunately, the MMA gods have taken this exciting scrap away from us as Fiziev has had to pull out due to testing positive for COVID-19 on Monday. This leaves this fight scrapped, however it is not too late to try to find a replacement as it has not been taken off the schedule just yet. It is a new entry in a series of cancelled UFC bouts so far in 2022, but let’s take a look at some interesting prospects that may pick up this opportunity and save this co-main event.

donald “Cowboy” Cerrone

The grizzled old horse of the biggest MMA promotion in the world, Donald Cerrone. Donald has had one of the most simultaneously iconic (if you’re a real fan) and slept on (if you’re not) careers in mixed martial arts. He has built himself as a certifiable real deal officially official legends in the game from his “Anybody. Anywhere. Any time.” approach to his fighting career and the fans have not only taken notice of it, but adore him for it. 0-5-1 in his last 6 fights would mean that this would be quite necessary for his career, not to mention that he and dos Anjos fought once before and was bested for the lightweight belt. Stepping in to avenge his loss to dos Anjos could be just the sign of life he needs at this point in his already illustrious career.

Chris“The action man”curtis

Chris Curtis is a relative new-comer to the UFC making one of the biggest splashes in recent memory as the new guy. He had a more than noteworthy year in 2021 finishing 6-0 for the whole year with his last two fights of the year being late replacement fights for the UFC. He was able to not just win those fights but he scored two impressive knockout victories in them against real UFC talents, Phil hawes and Brendan Allen. It goes without saying that Curtis has made it his mission to be active in his career as he is no spring chicken at 34 years old. However, he is wasting no time getting the fans acquainted with his exciting style and positive post-fight interview energy. With this dos Anjos replacement, he could step in and introduce himself on a higher stage and win even more fans while making a name for himself against a former champ.

islam makhachev

Islam Makhachev has had a breakout 2021, going 3-0 and all of his wins coming by finishes. He has been touted as the “successor to Khabib” and with the amount of mastery in his skill and dominance in his fights, there is nothing to argue against those claims. He’s made himself the most glaringly obvious choice as the next lightweight championship contender stringing together one of the longest active win streaks in the UFC with 10 wins in a row. His latest win being a 1st round TKO of UFC veteran, Bobby Green. At this point, all there is for Islam to do is wait and see who is still holding the belt after Justin Gaethje fights Charles Oliveira. However, Islam and Rafael dos Anjos did quite a bit of jawing back and forth with one another on Twitter on Monday after the announcement of Fiziev pulling out of the fight on Saturday.

Although, logistically there wouldn’t be a ton for Islam to gain by jumping back into the fray after having literally fought a few days ago and Dana already naming him as the next guy to challenge for the belt, who wouldn’t love to see this kind of chirping going in the middle of the octagon on March 5th?!