Tag Archives: Rashad Evans

Evans assures he took the right approach against Davis

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Rashad Evans will be the first to admit that his win over Phil Davis, while completely one-sided, was far from pretty. Evans controlled his younger, larger foe from bell to bell with far quicker strikes, much more effective takedowns and vastly superior grappling. The problem is that Evans failed to put away his overmatched opponent. And the failure to end fights has become an albatross around Evans’ neck in recent fights, the recent knockout win over Tito Ortiz notwithstanding.

The opportunities were there. Evans could have stepped up his standup, opting to sit down more on his punches and increase the volume in search of a crowd-thrilling knockout. He also could have taken more chances on the ground in search of a submission or stoppage due to strikes. He did none of those things. Evans instead remained focused on completely controlling the action without really taking any chances, which made the bout feel more like a sparring session than a fight.

It is no secret that I have criticized the former champion more than once for his conservative approach to competition. Not this time. In fact, I am going to take the opposite view of his performance.  I applaud Evans for the intelligent victory. Why? He did what he had to do in order to give the fans the biggest light heavyweight bout out there – the long-awaited grudge match with champion Jon Jones on April 21.

Evans knew going into the fight with Davis that, if he won, there would only be 84 days to heal up, rejuvenate his body and properly prepare for what could be the most significant fight of his career. He also knew that the short turnaround time meant the opportunity to face Jones would go to someone else, likely Dan Henderson, if he sustained anything more than a very minor injury against Davis. So, Evans did what he needed to do in order to set the stage for 2012’s first true mega fight and likely the most lucrative payday of his career.

I know. I know. Saturday was the biggest and brightest stage that Evans has ever performed on. This was a golden opportunity for “Suga” to turn himself into a fighting legend. But all that pales in comparison to securing the mouth-watering matchup with Jones. I’m sure many will take the opposite view, but this was one time when I completely support his decision to fight with a conservative approach. Well done, champ.

Rashad Evans continues to trash talk jon Jones, Why?

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Yes, Rashad Evans is still talking about Jon Jones.

That’s mostly a function of his being asked about the light heavyweight champion, though, and that was the case this past weekend. “Suga” was the featured fighter at the UFC 138 Fight Club Q&A in Birmingham, England, and fans wanted to know who would win if Jones fought Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva.

Rashad’s reply:

“Honestly, I think… I would say Anderson would win. I think he would catch Jon standing up because I think Jon does a lot of crazy stuff but, fundamentally, sometimes he does it just to do it. But I think Anderson has a reason, like Anderson, fundamentally and technically, is better in that respect and I think he would catch (Jones) doing something stupid. If the fight was to go a little bit longer and Jon used his wrestling then I think the fight may go to Jon. But for the most part, early on in the fight, Anderson would catch Jon trying to do something crazy.”

Silva’s speed, technique and pinpoint accuracy would be enough to defeat Jones’ superior size, length and unorthodox striking. That’s one way of looking at it.

Another is to say that “Bones” would stifle “The Spider” with a suffocating top game, much like Chael Sonnen did to the middleweight champ back at UFC 117. Of course, Sonnen went on to lose that fight via triangle choke.

This one would be a tough call, no question. Who do you Maniacs think wins?

Evans answered plenty more questions during his near hour long on stage session in front of fans, including more on his feud with Jones and fighters he wishes he could have fought before they retired from MMA.

MMABAY suggests the top 205 Pounders (Light Heavyweight) in MMA

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1. Jon Jones

2. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua

3. Rashad Evans

4. Dan Henderson

5. Lyoto Machida

6. Quinton Jackson

7.  Forrest Griffin

8. Phil Davis

9. Gegard Mousasi

10. Alexander Gustafsson

UFC Fight Night 25, will Jake Shields rise again

Posted by GC on

The UFC returns to Louisiana in September for UFC Fight Night 25, and a key welterweight matchup between Jake Shields (26-5-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) and Jake Ellenberger (25-5 MMA, 4-1 UFC) headlines the card.

Shields is hoping to earn a second crack at the UFC welterweight title, while Ellenberger is hoping to prove his legitimacy as a contender with a signature win.

In our latest MMAjunkie.com/”Inside MMA” poll, and the results were revealed on Friday’s new episode of HDNet’s weekly MMA news show, and it was fairly one-sided.

The most popular response, with 35 percent of the vote, was Shields via submission.

While it’s been a while since Shields has earned a stoppage win, it’s certainly not out of the question. Shields owns 10 career victories via submission, including wins over Robbie Lawler, Paul Daley, Nick Thompson, Mike Pyle, Ido Pariente and Ray Steinbeiss during an incredible 15-fight win streak that was recently snapped by St-Pierre.

Close behind was Shields via decision, which secured 29 percent of the vote. Another three percent voted for Shields via knockout or TKO, meaning a total of 67 percent of votes favor the former Strikeforce champ.

Those supporting Ellenberger favored a knockout or TKO win, with 21 percent of the total response predicting the result. Another 10 percent voted Ellenberger via decision, and just two percent predicted him to win via submission.

The results could be seen as a little surprising considering Ellenberger is returning from a stunning first-round knockout of Sean Pierson and currently carries a four-fight win streak in the octagon. In fact, Ellenberger is 8-1 in his past nine overall fights.

When shown the results of the poll, Ellenberger remained unflappable.

“It fuels the fire,” Ellenberger said of receiving so little of the vote. “It’s just people’s opinions, but at the end of the day, it really doesn’t mater.”

Rashad Evans Talks Fox Deal about UFC

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Rashad Evans like GSP is well spoken about this deal

GSP Talks Nick Diaz & His Ridiculous Trash Talking

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The UFC brought out it’s big guns to announced its new Fox network deal. The company’s “A-List” in attendance included not only UFC president Dana White, UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta, and UFC VP Chuck Liddell, but also fighters such as Georges St-Pierre (Watch Video), Frankie Edgar, and Rashad Evans.

All of them are excited for the fruits that will soon be coming their and the UFC’s way because of this landmark TV deal, but UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre actually had a lot more to say about his next opponent, former Strikeforce champion Nick Diaz, than the broadcast agreement.

Diaz has a knack for getting under his opponent’s skin, and although GSP pride’s himself on not getting overly emotional about his fights, he had to admit that he feels somewhat disrespected by Diaz’s comments that the UFC champ was ducking him.

St-Pierre and Diaz will square off on Oct. 29 at UFC 137