The story of Rashad Evans‘ quest for a second crack at UFC gold is well documented.
After losing the title to Lyoto Machida, Evans took decisions over Thiago Silva and Quinton Jackson to earn another shot at the title.
But then champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua injured his knee, and Evans decided to wait it out.
When fight night was right around the corner, Evans ironically hurt his knee, opening the door for Jon “Bones” Jones to have a shot.
Jones blasted Rua to take the title inside of three rounds.
One messy feud later, Evans and Jones were set to square off. Jones injure his hand before it could happen.
Evans would then face Tito Ortiz in a rematch, and Jones went on to face Quinton Jackson.
Once again, certain to face off, Evans injured his hand and was leapfrogged by Lyoto Machida.
Now, Evans is set to face Phil Davis. Jones however, is anxious to get back in the cage and needs an opponent.
With all this mess, it seems almost as if the UFC is trying to keep these two fighters apart. It’s like they don’t want to cash in on what has been a very well documented and very public feud. This is simply not the case.
Bad blood sells.
It’s all a matter of circumstance. Evans just simply can’t get in the cage at the same time as Jones, either due to injury or poor timing.
Every time Jones or Evans are ready to fight, the other is either already booked or already injured.
It’s a simple lesson to fighters—if the champ is hurt, don’t wait it out.
You may lose your number one contender status, but that’s a whole lot better than floating around in limbo for nearly two years.
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