Dos Anjos reveals he passed out before fighting Alvarez last July

Rafael dos Anjos learned he was no longer made for the lightweight division the hard way.

The former champ is set to make his welterweight debut opposite Tarec Saffiedine in June, a move spawned by a harrowing cut to 155 pounds in his last fight as lightweight king. As revealed Monday on "The MMA Hour," dos Anjos passed out shortly before his July title defense against Eddie Alvarez, and while he refused to cancel the fight - which he lost by first-round knockout - hindsight has taught him to nullify the risk of long-term damage often associated with grueling weight cuts.

"I passed out in the bathtub, in the hot tub. I was out for like almost three minutes,” dos Anjos said, per MMA Fighting's Guilherme Cruz. "My coaches were about to call 911 and cancel the fight because I was out on my bed, and they put some ice on my chest, and then I woke up and stayed on my bed for one hour.

"We thought about cancelling the fight but I'm a fighter, I don't wanna upset the fans. But thinking back right now, I shouldn't make that fight because today guys all the time kind of don't fight because they have weight problems. Khabib (Nurmagomedov), the other day, he didn't make the fight with (Tony) Ferguson because he had some issues, but it's fine. That’s past. Now a new division, a new life."

Dos Anjos has previously pointed to the increasingly difficult cut to 155 as the reason for his move up in weight, one his November loss to Tony Ferguson reassured him was the right call.

"I said man, God makes everything the right time. Maybe if I won that fight, I'd still be killing myself to make 155. Then I lost two in a row and I decided to change, but after the fight I knew."