A few minutes can change an entire career in UFC. For Rashad Evans, that is a good thing following UFC 161.
The former light heavyweight champion was having a tough year and then some. He had a huge opportunity against Jon Jones for the title, but he was unable to win the decision after five rounds. He then struggled against Antônio Rogério Nogueira and lost by decision at UFC 156.
Despite the fact that Evans was 17-1-1 before this recent slide, it was clear that he was approaching the downside of his career. If he was unable to defeat the aging Dan Henderson, there might not have been many more opportunities in the future.
Fortunately, he showed that he is still lethal on his feet with a great fighting performance.
Evans showed off his speed with 66 strikes on his opponent, compared to only 53 by Henderson. Most impressively, he had 32 power strikes at the head, according to ESPN.
He was clearly in better shape than anyone expected and completely dominated the final round to secure the victory by split decision.
Although Henderson is now 42 years old, this is still a quality victory over a tough opponent. The win will end up being very important for the mindset of Evans and the rest of the MMA community going forward.
The win, regardless of how close it was, will absolutely help the fighter’s confidence going forward. He might have lost some of that in the bout against Jones, which carried over against Nogueira. However, fans should expect the Evans of old in his next time out.
As far as his public perception goes, this win will put him back in the picture for title contention. Even Dana White admitted to Matt Erickson of USA Today that it would be very unlikely for the loser of this match to get back into the title picture.
I mean, anything’s possible. You could lose this fight and then go on an eight-fight win streak. But I would say, statistically, it’d be tough to come back from this loss (and fight for a title someday).
This eliminates Henderson, but it leaves an opening for Evans. However, he first must continue to knock out other contenders before getting another chance at Jones.
One name that has come up recently is Glover Teixeira. The talented light heavyweight had stated that he wanted to face the winner of the UFC 161 main event.
According to Mike Whitman of Sherdog.com, Evans appears open to it, saying, “Glover said he’d like to fight [tonight’s] winner. I’m not calling anybody out… but I’m not turning anybody down. I like to fight.”
Another possibility is Alexander Gustafsson, who continues to climb up the ranks among the best in the weight class. If Evans is capable of defeating him, another opportunity against Jones might not be far behind.
Evans still has a long career in front of him that will feature many high-profile matches, and his win on Saturday night secured that this will happen.
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