Following his loss to Light Heavyweight champion Jon Jones, there have been no definitive statements about Rashad Evans’s future in the UFC. The former champion stayed quiet on the issue for a long time before calling out Middleweight champion Anderson Silva after UFC 148. Since then, there’s been a lot of speculation on whether or not Rashad deserves an immediate shot at Silva, if it should be at a catchweight, or if Evans should drop to 185 lbs.
Saturday night, after UFC 150, MMA Live caught up with Evans to see what he had to say about his next move in the UFC:
On Chael Sonnen:
Chael will always be an interesting fight, but we work together a lot with Fuel TV. So, I don’t know if it will happen. Besides that, I think Chael might be going up. I’m never one to back down from a fight, though. So, if Chael wants to come down, I mean come up, then we gotta do it.
On who he’d like to fight next:
Ultimately, [I’d like to fight] Anderson Silva. Then, at the same time, I would have to establish myself in the weight class. So they say. So, I don’t know. That’s a good question. Matter of fact, Dana White call me! Joe Silva call me!
Unfortunately, Rashad doesn’t give any specific details here. However, a lot can still be taken from the interview. First, Evans naturally rejected the idea of a fight with former Middleweight contender Chael Sonnen on the grounds that Chael intends on moving to 205 lbs. Couple that with Rashad’s focus on “establishing” himself in the Middleweight division and I’d say that he definitely has intentions of dropping down at this point. Assuming Sonnen does move up in weight, a catchweight bout at 195 lbs. between the two would be extremely compelling.
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