Rashad Evans, hobbling somewhat, spoke exclusively to The Telegraph an hour after the in-house activities were complete at UFC 126. Sporting a bloodshot right eye from sparring, the former UFC light-heavyweight champion did seem down but philosophical about the situation he finds himself in.
“I’m very disappointed. I was at practise on Wednesday, we were drilling wrestling technique, and one partner was going at 100pc and the other partner at 30pc and the drill was seeing how many takedowns you could get in a minute. I was being a partner and someone ran into the side of my leg – two people tried to do a takedown – they took my knee and I just fell down right away. I knew right away I was done. The injury is to the medial lateral ligament. It’s a pretty bad strain, so it will be bad for 4 to six weeks, so if the fight had been another month away, then I’d at least be able to train before the fight.”
Evans was referring to the scheduled title fight with Shogun Rua at UFC 128. “But I’ve got to rest it, even before I could do any training on it. I”m down, I’m a bit upset, I’ve waited for the opportunity to fight for the belt and it just didn’t work out like that, but on the flipside I’m happy that Jon got a chance to do it because he’s an exciting fighter, he’s talented, he’s my training partner and I’m happy for him. But I’m just a bit down inside because I’m losing an opportunity.”
Evans’s misery will be compounded in another way because if Jones defeats Rua, it puts a title shot further away, as he will not agree to fight his training partner. “I told Dana White on Thursday that I had done a number on it pretty badly. He flew me out [to Vegas] and got it checked out by the doctor here and it was confirmed, so we went through the scenarios of who could step in. I’ll be back.”
Yeah, who needs that pesky title shot anyways? It will only guarantee that you get fame, a huge payday, and job security! Who wouldn't want to throw that away!:confused05:
Who cares if he waited? I dont see the karma in it... He doesn't need the money to fight 2-3 times a year, he makes 250,000 base salary a fight.
The only problem is that if Jones wins the title, he will be a champion for a long time. Say good bye to your title Rashad, unless you plan on fighting him.
I thought we were waiting on Shogun here!! Anyway, kinda dick Dana doesn't wait for Rashad, like he did Rua.....bottom line Dana wants to see Bones against Rua, better match up and bigger draw. Dana is an asshole sometimes. I mean I'm not a huge Rashad fan but IMO he is getting screwed by money hungry Dana...
As far as karma for Rashad....that's bullshit dude:sarcastic12: everyone gets hurt, Christ he did it training....
It definitely sucks that Rashad is missing out the opportunity. He still had all the momentum going into the fight and get's hurt while training. I'm not complaining that much though, i get to see Jon Jones challenge for the title and the fights in next month.
rashad is getting what he deserves. he kept waiting and waiting and waiting for the title fight without taking a fight in between. if he's really worthy of being a champion, then he can win a fight before the title fight. but he was scared to do that.
the fight was delayed b/c of shogun's injury. they've waited a while and now that fight is almost here. now that rashad is injured there is no point in holding the lhw belt up anymore.
and yes, bones jones is going to take the title from shogun (although a ton of people are on the shogun hype train like they were with machida and vitor). and at that point, rashad will be screwed unless bones loses the title. is see bones holding the belt for a while after he takes it, though.......unless anderson decides he wants it.
I imagine Shogun asked Dana to just choose another opponent instead of being out of action for even longer, he's not picky about who he fights.
I bet we were very close to seeing Rua vs Rampage 2, but it was decided the fighter who's on a win streak (Jones) should get it. I think Dana said it was decided literally during/at the end of the Jones-Bader fight.
what will rashad do after bones wins the title, can he make middle wieght?, or will he move back to heavywieght?, cus jones will have that title for many years, only test i see for him is if anderson moves up, thats the only fight thats 50/50.
This seems like a pretty silly thing to say to me. How do you figure that A. Silva poses a threat to Jones, whereas Shogun does not? The two have the same basic skillset.
Prices vary depending on who is fighting, championship fight, contender fight, if you remove a title fight from the card, the fans wont exactly be happy. You can't postpone a title fight because the contender got injured a month before a fight, a fight thats already been postponed 1-2 times.
This seems like a pretty silly thing to say to me. How do you figure that A. Silva poses a threat to Jones, whereas Shogun does not? The two have the same basic skillset.
Anything can happen in these fights all we can do is compare styles, so yeah the statement that Silva can beat him but Shogun can't is completely nonsensical. People just love to hype and set the fighters up for failure.
Look at what happened to Machida. I never thought he'd be that dominant anyway but it all would have been a lot less dramatic without the hype.
People are choosing Jones to beat Shogun, but has anyone noticed that Shogun(#1 LHW in the world currently and has been considered #1 in the past) recieves virtually zero marketing and hype? It really does influence people's decisions in these fights, very annoying. Bader was never going to be a top dog, but somehow, many fans thought he would be...
Anything can happen in these fights all we can do is compare styles, so yeah the statement that Silva can beat him but Shogun can't is completely nonsensical. People just love to hype and set the fighters up for failure.
Look at what happened to Machida. I never thought he'd be that dominant anyway but it all would have been a lot less dramatic without the hype.
People are choosing Jones to beat Shogun, but has anyone noticed that Shogun(#1 LHW in the world currently and has been considered #1 in the past) recieves virtually zero marketing and hype? It really does influence people's decisions in these fights, very annoying. Bader was never going to be a top dog, but somehow, many fans thought he would be...
Bader gets a lot of hype cuz he was a stud at Arizona State and he trains at AKA with Cain and CB and all them, he was doing well, styles make fights, I just didnt think JBJ would sub him, i was looking for the k/o or tko...
First reading this threat I was kinda on Rash's side thinking he is been screwed out of his shot after waiting so long, but as I progressed further I am now set thinking if Jones does take the belt from Shogun and Rash decides he doe snot want to fights him training partner for the belt, then fcuk him, if he does not want the belt bad enough to fight his training partner then I have no sympathy, I wonder if Jones would feel the same way if Rash was to take the belt from Shogun.
Let this be a lesson to him I say and anyone else in the UFC who will not fight there training partners when a title is on the line.
I'm disappointed the fight isn't happening I was really looking forward to it. Also I too have no sympathy for a guy if he doesn't want to fight a training partner. If you don't want to that's cool but dont complain about not having titles. If he really wants to be World Champion again either fight Jon or cut to 185 if Jon does become champion.
this thread is so full of crap.. honestly.. who has JBJ fought? lols.. mid-class fighters.. and people go out comparing him to the best fighter on this planet.. just makes u go, are people really that dumb?
You don't have to face a load of over hyped fighters to show the world you have real talent, well I guess you do to prove a point to idiots like you.
On a side note I still think of all people in the world of LHW MMA the one person who stylistically would pose the biggest threat to stopping the run of JBJ is Roger Gracie.
I don't Shoguns chances, I think JBJ will be the next LHW champion.
Whats with all the "he should have been fighting while he waited for shogun." As far as i'm concerned he's the one going in the octagon and spending months and months of training time. If he wants to wait rather then fight then who cares, thats his choice.
On topic: poor sugar.
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