Rafael dos Anjos (photo via UFC.com)

By FCF Staff

Rafael dos Anjos worked his way to a clear cut, decision win over Anthony Pettis last night at UFC 185, and he did so with an injured knee.

After the bout, which saw dos Anjos lay claim to the UFC Lightweight Championship, the 30 year-old fighter reported that he injured his MCL a few weeks out from the bout.

“I don’t know if you guys noticed, but in the open workouts, I didn’t work my kicking at all. I hurt my MCL three weeks before the fight,” dos Anjos said in his backstage interview with the UFC. ” I couldn’t grapple, I couldn’t wrestle since then, and my coach was thinking about not letting me fight, but I was training my boxing when I go to training, and here I am with the belt. Man, such a mixed blessing.”

Dos Anjos added that he doesn’t think he’ll need surgery, but that he’ll know more when he has an MRI in the coming days.

With the victory, dos Anjos (24-7) extended his winning streak to four and he is expected to face the winner of the Khabib Nurmagomedov-Donald Cerrone fight on May 23rd.

Dos Anjos holds a decision win over Cerrone, but last April, he was decisioned by Nurmagomedov.

Pettis (18-3), who reported he couldn’t see out of his right eye after taking a big shot early on in the bout, had his five fight winning streak snapped.