Rashad Evans and Chael Sonnen don’t stand a chance in their upcoming title bouts.
It’s not a slight to Evans and Sonnen, because anyone who’s seen these two perform know that they are fantastic fighters. However, Jon Jones and Anderson Silva are nearly perfect.
Evans and Sonnen undeniably possess the tools to beat both fighters, but it simply won’t happen. Starting with the matchup on April 21, Evans and Jones will compete in a somewhat close contest, but Jones’s reach, talent and elusive striking will be too much for Evans.
Everyone knows that Evans has something of a mental edge on Jones from training with him in the past, but that won’t help him. Evans’ best quality is mixing his strikes with his takedowns, but he’s never fought a wrestler of Jones’s caliber.
Jones has faced the likes of Matt Hamill, Vladimir Matyushenko, Ryan Bader and Quintin “Rampage” Jackson, and he’s out-wrestled all of them. I’d argue that Evans is a better MMA wrestler than all of those guys, but the fact that Jones has roughly a 10-inch reach on Evans will play a factor in taking Jones down.
Jones will have such an advantage in the reach department that Evans will have a tough time getting inside and taking the champion down. Thus, Evans will have to stand with Jones, and Jones will pick him apart with his Muay Thai.
Now, onto the other blockbuster title bout this year—Silva vs. Sonnen II. This is the fight that MMA fans have been waiting for since Silva defeated Sonnen in 2010 via triangle choke. Sonnen dominated the champion for four and a half rounds, and Silva pulled off the greatest comeback in MMA history.
If the reports about Silva’s ribs are true leading up to the fight with Sonnen, Sonnen might be in for a long night—or even worse, a short one. The reason I’ve been wanting to see this fight so bad is because I, along with the rest of the MMA community I’m assuming, want two questions answered.
The first question is what I previously mentioned about Silva’s ribs. How hurt was he? And my next question is if Sonnen’s style is Silva’s weakness.
If the answer to the second question is yes, then this article is absolutely irrelevant. That means that preventing a Silva submission, Sonnen is going to pressure Silva and take him down and win a decision. However, if the answer is no, then I have no doubts that Silva will knock Sonnen out.
Silva will be pumped about fighting in front of Brazil, and as soon as he separates from Sonnen and finds his range, another classic Silva knockout shot will be delivered.
This is the way it looks on paper, but then again, if that were always right, why would these fighters ever step inside the Octagon?
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