Dos Anjos vs. Covington interim title fight set for UFC 224

Rafael dos Anjos and Colby Covington are set to meet for the interim welterweight title at UFC 224 in May.

Another UFC interim champion will be crowned next month.

Rafael dos Anjos and Colby Covington are set to square off for the UFC interim welterweight title in the UFC 224 co-main event, MMAFighting.com reported Tuesday afternoon. BJPenn.com first reported the news last month.

Dos Anjos (28-9) is 3-0 since moving up to 170 pounds. He most recently defeated former champion Robbie Lawler in the UFC on FOX 26 main event last December. Prior to that, he bested Neil Magny by submission and Tarec Saffiedine by decision.

The Brazilian was the promotion’s lightweight champion from March 2015 to July 2016, losing it to Eddie Alvarez at International Fight Week nearly two years ago. He decided to move up in weight after a second straight defeat to Tony Ferguson.

Covington (13-1) is riding a five-fight winning streak. “Chaos” picked up the biggest win of his career in his last outing, defeating former title challenger Demian Maia by competitive decision. After that win, he called the Sao Paulo crowd “filthy animals” and has since been a target for many fighters, including heavyweight Fabricio Werdum.

Covington told BloodyElbow.com after his win over Maia that he would probably never return to Brazil to fight. That has apparently changed.

UFC 224 takes place at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on May 12. In the main event, UFC women’s bantamweight champ Amanda Nunes defends her title for the third time against Raquel Pennington.

UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley has not competed since a July 2017 win over Maia at UFC 214. He suffered a shoulder injury that required surgery in that contest and has been recovering since. Per MMAFighting.com’s report, Woodley is hoping to return to the Octagon in July.

Woodley is expected to unify the two titles with the dos Anjos vs. Covington winner upon his return.