The Blackzilians are one of the more well-known fight camps in mixed martial arts these days. Alistair Overeem and Rashad Evans represented that camp at UFC 156. Although both fighters entered the event as favorites, they left in defeat, a fact that did not go unmentioned by UFC president Dana White after the event.
“The Blackzilians did not represent this evening, it was a bad night for them,” White said at the post-fight media scrum.
The first fighter of the two that White discussed was Overeem. Before the fight all signs pointed to Overeem earning a shot at UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez. To earn that shot Overeem had to get past Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, a fighter that Velasquez handled with relative ease at UFC 146, earning a first-round TKO. “He was running into a clinch, he wasn’t throwing punches, his hands were down by his knees, it was a weird fight,” White said of Overeem.
White then discussed the overall performance of Evans and Overeem and he did not offer kind words. “Terrible. Both of them looked out of shape. They had a bad night. They probably have to reevaluate some things in their camp.”
Much like Overeem, Evans was being discussed as being one fight away from a UFC title shot with a win. Had Evans defeated Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, he would have been considered as a potential opponent for UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
With both Blackzilians fighters tasting defeat on Saturday night, they have fallen out of the running for those title shots. White would not offer with 100 percent certainty who would fight for those two titles next, but when asked if it looked like Chris Weidman was the only fight left available for Anderson Silva, he replied, “I would have to say yes.”
As for Velasquez, that’s a trickier situation, but after Silva’s TKO win over Overeem, White offered that a rematch between Antonio Silva was not out of the question
If fight fans were looking for UFC 156 to tie a nice bow around some upcoming title fights, they were extremely let down on Saturday night.
**all quotes obtained first-hand by BR MMA
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