Poor, Rashad.
Since losing the light heavyweight championship to Lyoto Machida back in 2009, Rashad Evans has defeated top contenders Thiago Silva and Quinton Jackson.
Evans was supposed to face Mauricio Rua in March for the UFC’s light heavyweight belt, but an injury forced him to withdraw from the bout.
Then, he was supposed to face Jon Jones for the championship at UFC 133, but Jones was forced to drop out of the fight.
Now, Rashad has lost his shot for the title and instead will face Phil Davis.
This is a high risk fight for Rashad. A win will likely earn him the next title shot in the light heavyweight division. However, a loss for Evans would be devastating. Davis looked relatively unimpressive in his last fight with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, so if Rashad loses people will seriously begin to question his place in the division.
For Phil, this is a very low risk fight. He is a replacement fighter, so the UFC will be happy with him for helping them out of a tight spot, regardless of whether he wins or loses.
If Davis does lose, it doesn’t hurt him too much because most people don’t think he is ready for Rashad anyways. If he wins, it’ll catapult him into title contention.
Let’s see how these two stack up…