In unfortunate MMA news, Rafael Fiziev was forced to pull out of this weekend’s fight against Rafael Dos Anjos after testing positive for COVID. First off, who’s still getting COVID these days?
There was that run in like late December/Early January where everyone you knew was getting it, but you haven’t really heard much since then. I’m not saying he’s faking it, but I’m not saying he’s not faking it. That was a joke, he def has it.
Now, with this news in mind, a massive sweepstake has opened up to see who’s gonna get to step in on short notice to fight RDA. A lot of names are being thrown around like Ilia Tourpia, Paul Felder, Renato Moicano, and of course Islam Makachev. But let’s be honest, the only guy anyone wants to see step in is Islam.
I know he just smashed Bobby Green in the first round, and no disrespect to Bobby Green, but it was Bobby Green. He’s awesome, but he’s not exactly the elite of the elite. So, despite the fact that Islam’s won 10 in a row, the Green victory still leaves some deniability as to his title shot hopes, but if he beats RDA on a week’s notice, there are literally zero arguments against it.
Stylistically, this fight rocks. We’ll get to see Islam against someone with an elite ground game, something we really haven’t seen before. Plus, it’ll be RDA’s opportunity to avenge himself from that time Khabib took him down like 47 times in a singular fight and broke basically every wrestling record the UFCs ever seen.
And honestly, call me a hopeless optimist, but I really think this fights gonna happen. Islam’s fight last week ended in the first round, so he can’t be that out of shape unless he ballooned up like Khabib, in which case he might have to look at some light heavyweight fights or something. RDA’s in, so if the UFC is down the ball’s really in Islam’s court please.
