Rafael Dos Anjos fought with knee injury at UFC 185

Rafael dos Anjos's dominant, title-capturing performance against Anthony Pettis on Saturday night is even more impressive than originally thought.

Apparently, the newly-minted lightweight champion decimated Pettis while nursing a knee injury.

"I'm thankful for the fact I've been so active my whole career, and I've never had any knee injury in my whole life. My knee is really tough; I've got a strong knee, but for the first time this happened," dos Anjos told reporters following the fight. "It was like three weeks ago. I couldn't grapple. I couldn't wrestle since that (happened).

"I don't know if you guys noticed, but I didn't kick at the open workout. I didn't use any kicks because I was kind of dehydrated, and I didn't want my injury to get even worse. But everything went perfect during the fight."

Currently riding a four-fight winning streak - including victories over the last two 155-pound champions - dos Anjos is set to defend his title against the winner of the UFC 187 matchup between Donald Cerrone and Khabib Nurmagomedov. Nurmagomedov stands as the last man to defeat dos Anjos back in April of 2014, while dos Anjos bested Cerrone via unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 27 in 2013.

The date of dos Anjos's first title defense will depend on the health of his knee.

"Apparently ... he fought tonight with a blown MCL," UFC president Dana White said. "So, just my luck. The guy who wins the title is hurt."

Despite White's obvious disappointment with dos Anjos's knee injury, he was in absolute awe of the new champion's transformative performance. 

"I didn’t think anybody could do that to Anthony Pettis," White said. "He did that tonight. He absolutely dominated him everywhere. Beating Anthony Pettis is a big deal. In my eyes, what he did in that fight was unbelievable."