Rafael dos Anjos Says Three Botched Surgeries Nearly Ended His Career

Rafael dos Anjos hasn't set foot in the Octagon since October 2024, and now the former UFC lightweight champion has explained why. In a recent interview, dos Anjos revealed he's been through three surgeries back-to-back since that outing against Geoff Neal — a run of setbacks that had him wondering whether his fighting days were finished.

The trouble started with his knee. Dos Anjos said he needed meniscus surgery after the Neal fight, but a doctor in Brazil made a mistake during the procedure, attempting to stitch the meniscus rather than treat it properly. That botched first operation kicked off the chain reaction of corrective work that followed.

The Toll of Standing Still

For a fighter who's built a two-decade career on volume and pressure, nearly two years on the shelf is a brutal stretch. Dos Anjos admitted the pile-up of procedures pushed him to a dark place, telling himself at one point that this was the end. When the surgeries keep coming and the calendar keeps turning, that thought isn't dramatic — it's honest.

The Neal bout looks like a hard note to potentially go out on. Neal, an unranked welterweight, currently sits at 16-8 with 10 knockouts and two submissions, though he's coming off a first-round TKO loss to Uroš Medić. That's the kind of division dos Anjos has been grinding through since moving up from lightweight, where he once held the belt.

What Comes Next

Dos Anjos hasn't announced a return date, and after three operations, nobody should be circling one in ink. But the fact that he's talking publicly about the recovery — and framing the retirement thoughts in the past tense — suggests he's not ready to walk away just yet.

At this stage of his career, every comeback carries a question mark. Three surgeries in a row would end plenty of runs. Whether dos Anjos gets one more Octagon walk depends less on matchmaking and more on whether that knee holds up.