(We’ll give you an A for effort, Rashad, but we don’t think you have the..ahem… skin tone to pull off Sloth from The Goonies this Halloween.)
For those of you who were hoping to see Rashad Evans test the waters at middleweight, it looks like you’ll have to keep waiting, because it has been reported by the Brazilian outlet SporTV that Evans will be facing off against Antonio Rogerio Nogueria at a TBD event planned for Super Bowl weekend in Las Vegas.
Prior to his failed light heavyweight title bid at UFC 145, the TUF 2 winner scored big victories over Phil Davis — who trounced Nogueira back at Ultimate Fight Night 24 — and Tito Ortiz — who was defeated by Lil’ Nog in December of last year. Following hsi win over Ortiz, Nogueira recently called out Forrest Griffin — who lost his title to Evans at UFC 92 and defeated Ortiz in his last appearance — but was beat out for the spot by the last man to defeat him: Phil Davis. So according to MMA math…I’m illiterate.
In all honesty, this is not a good matchup for Nogueira, who struggled against the grappling prowess of guys like Jason Brilz, Ryan Bader (who defeated Brilz but lost to OrtiSTOP DOING THIS!), and Davis, who himself was out-grappled by Evans…you know what, I’ll let you draw your own conclusions for this one. Needless to say, Nogueira is likely going to try and keep this thing standing, which Evans shouldn’t have all that much trouble with if Chuck Liddell has anything to say about it.
The matchup has not been officially confirmed by the UFC as of this write up, but according to MMAFighting, a source close to one of the fighters has all but confirmed this. So unless Evans suddenly gains the gusto to call out Anderson Silva, we will more than likely be seeing these two square off in early February.
Who do you like for this one, Potato Nation?