With three wins in a row on UFC, Rafael dos Anjos is focused on his duel against Clay Guida on UFC 117. Before getting into action, the black belt talked to TATAME about his trainings, the exchange program with Muay Thai, he analyzed Clay Guida’s game style and talked about the Brazilians on his division. Check below the chat with the lightweight athlete.

How is your preparation for your next fight on UFC going?

Is the best it can get, I come from no injuries, I’m training hard, because I know the fight is getting closer… There are six weeks left before it and I’ll begin the harder trainings. I’m doing it already, but now it’s time for the more specific trainings for the fight, but the expectation is the best, we’re coming with all our strength.

Now you have the help from people coming from Muay Thai. How this exchange program is going?

Kry Tov came from Singapore, and people from Singapore send him to help me. He helped me a lot on my preparation for UFC 102 back in Singapore, we spent a month training together and it was really helpful. He’s here to help me on this strategy we’ve been setting for my fight against Clay Guida so that I can crack him.

Clay Guida is a guy who has a crazy way of fighting and is very aggressive. What do you think this fight will be like?

I believe I have to hold his momentum, his madness, I can get there and go for it like a crazy person, I have to frustrate some of his attempts of fall and work on my Boxing and Muay Thai. I believe that, for this fight, things will go that way: I’ll defend the takedowns and work on my standing game, my boxing and Muay Thai so that, I can try to bring him to the ground and finish the fight. It’ll be hard to submit Clay Guida without hitting him first... I’m like a trainwreck. If it’s God’s wish, I’ll keep it this way.

You didn’t start well on UFC, with two losses, but then you got a great sequence of wins. What do you believe changed in your attitude so you could have so great results?

I’m like a trainwreck now (laughs). If it’s God’s whish, we’ll keep it that way and won’t lose the rhythm. I owe this to my experience on the event and also to my coaches and for the effort I’ve been doing, I’ve been trying to improve every fight I do, I work on my difficulties, but I owe it to my coaches, master Gordo, Paulo Caruso on my physical preparation, people from Boxing, the guys from the Olympic Struggle who has been helping me a lot… I owe it to these persons and my effort, because I’ve been working hard.

How do you see the Brazilians on this division, which has names like Chiquerim, Thiago ALves, Charles from the Bronx and others?

Brazil is very well represented, the guys are tough and they’re coming up now. We know how it’s hard to get here and we don’t want to confront each other, the intention is to fight against guys from other countries… It’s not nice to have a Brazilian vs. Brazilian fight, but we cheer for the guys to make a good job and the lightweight division on UFC is lacking Brazilian fighters, but we’re getting a good team and we’ll disturb this division a bit. The guys are coming from great wins and Brazil has all the tools to keep a good campaign on this division.