i maintain that RDA in his prime at Lightweight is as unbeatable of a fighter as you can get for anybody not named Khabib.

in his prime, he was on a 9-1 in his last 10 run with wins over Donald Cerrone, Anthony Pettis, Nate Diaz & Benson Henderson with his only setback being against the undeniable Lightweight GOAT

unfortunately, the UFC would ban the use of IV Rehydration in October of 2015, and Dos Anjos would experience a huge decline at Lightweight.

won a sloppy TKO win over Donald Cerrone in the rematch in December 2015 (who himself was suffering from the IV Ban and was forced to move to 170 until a 1-2 lightweight return in 2019), and would immediately get finished by Eddie Alvarez & lose to Tony Ferguson before heading to welterweight himself before a Lightweight return in 2020

Rafael Dos Anjos actually explained the side effects of his recovery due to the IV Ban in an Interview from 2015

the consensus seems to be that RDA was at his peak in both the Nurmagomedov & Ferguson fights, but i believe that is only true for the Khabib fight. i heavily disagree with the sentiment that the version of RDA that Tony Ferguson beat was the same RDA that dominated a prime Anthony Pettis (who Tony went life and death with, after pettis’ prime)

some try to argue that the IV Ban didnt affect RDA all that much, and that he only declined at Lightweight due to an increase in level of competition

but in my opinion, you don’t go from eating clean headkicks from Anthony Pettis with no reaction & taking Showtime down at will 9/10 times, to getting rocked by Tony Fergusons (who isn’t known to possess much power) punches & have all 5 of your takedowns stuffed (0/5 attempts landed)

its not exactly as if Tony was an elite defensive grappler by any means, he got taken down on 2/3 attempts by Edson Barboza & also got taken down at will by Danny Castillo and Kevin Lee, so the fact RDA couldn’t get him down at all clearly shows the IV Ban affected him to an extent

when you take into account that RDA at his peak was only bested by Khabib, and not Tony. it makes Khabibs win over Dos Anjos seem a lot more impressive in hindsight

this begs the question, except for Khabib, would any of you guys favor any Lightweight in UFC History over Rafael Dos Anjos at his peak? (lets say the version that fought Anthony Pettis at UFC 185)?

would love to hear your takes on this!