Former Michigan State Spartan wrestler “Sugar” Rashad Evans has finally earned his shot at the title again.
After winning the belt in 2008 against Forrest Griffin, Evans lost it in his next fight against Lyoto Machida.
It was no easy task on the road back to the belt for Evans. He defeated Thiago Silva, and Rampage Jackson. After the Jackson fight, Evans earned a title shot against Shogun Rua.
Rua however would hurt his knee, forcing Evans to wait almost a year for his shot. A few weeks before the title bout Evans himself hurt his knee forcing him to miss his opportunity.
One of Evans’ best friends and training partners took the title shot himself—Jon Jones.
Jones has since then dominated the division while Evans has had to sit back and watch his former friend wear the belt. Evans left his training camp and has feuded publicly with Jones over the last year because of it.
The two were set to meet in 2011 but due to a hand injury, Jones withdrew from the bout between him and Evans.
Tired of waiting, Evans, booked a fight against former champion Tito Ortiz, and about a week later Jones’s hand, which was thought to require surgery, apparently didn’t need it anymore, angering Evans once again because he was already set to fight Ortiz.
Evans went through with his plans with Ortiz and was able to earn a TKO victory in the Round 2.
After Jones defended his belt against Jackson, it looked like the two former training partners would finally meet. However during the fight against Ortiz, Evans suffered a broken hand which would push the bout between himself and Jones a few weeks back.
Unwilling to wait a few weeks, Jones took a fight against Machida. Wanting to fend off ring rust, Evans, took a fight against Phil Davis which leads us to where we are now.
Last night, in a dominating fashion Evans manhandled Davis for five rounds, winning each round on all three judges’ score cards for a 50-45 unanimous decision victory.
Jones and Evans will FINALLY meet up at UFC 145 in one of the most anticipated fights in UFC history. The two truly hate each other, and there is a lot of understandable bitterness from Evan’s camp.
When the two do meet up in April, you can guarantee someone will get finished. This will not go to the judges.
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