Unless something dramatically changes, it’s probably safe to say that “Shogun” Rua and Rashad Evans will not be engaging in the kind of pre-fight smack talk, which fuelled interest in this past weekend’s UFC 114 clash between Evans and “Rampage” Jackson. Now granted, Shogun could end up pointing to the fact that he punted Jackson into oblivion rather than winning by decision, or Rashad could fire things up by stating he bombed out Forrest Griffin instead of tapping out to him, but, don’t count on it. This fight, when it’s made official, should be damn good, but not because the two have engaged in countless chest bumping, talking over each other for two minutes, threat fests.
Case in point, when Fix caught up with Evans post-fight this past weekend, he outright stated he was a fan of Shogun (his aforementioned 2005 brutalization of Jackson may play a factor in this…), and when asked by Tatame.com about Evan’s win over Rampage, Rua said this:
“I watched the fight between Rampage and Rashad and I think I was a great spectacle. Rashad made a good and efficient strategy, kept Jackson always in a short distance, kept himself close to him and did good takedowns.”
Yes. It was a good and efficient strategy wasn’t it? Maybe not super duper thrilling, but hey, a huge win regardless. It will be interesting to see if the light-heavyweight champ can negate Evan’s wrestling, if and when they fight later this year.