Former UFC light heavyweight champion “Suga” Rashad Evans (15-1-1) recently did an interview with FightersOnlyMagazine.co.uk, and of course the hot topic was his ongoing rivalry with current champ, Jon Jones.
One interesting question that was brought up, was Evans thoughts on a possible middleweight title bout between Michael “The Count” Bisping against UFC champ Anderson Silva. Bisping has made it clear that his goal is to earn a title shot, but many fans and critics have voiced their opinion that the Brit would have little chance against the eight-time defending champ.
Evans was asked about the potential matchup because he’s fought Bisping in the past. Both men headlined the UFC 78 event back in November 2007, with “Suga” earning a close split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) victory.
“Michael Bisping is something else, because he doesn’t really show well but when you’re in the cage with him he absolutely is a lot better than he shows. that’s one thing I learned by fighting him. And his takedowns have gotten a lot better, I have been impressed by that and by his transitions to those takedowns.”
“See its one thing to be able to hit a takedown – anybody at this level in MMA, we all know how to take someone down. But its the little things that make your takedown effective and one of the things is your transition from your punches to your takedown. Bisping has gotten really effective at that transition. That happens to be Anderson Silva’s Achilles Heel, the takedown, so it could be a completive fight.”
“And another thing that Bisping does is, sometimes he just doesn’t care, you know? He just doesn’t care, he just goes for it. So for people to say it wouldn’t be a fight or it wouldn’t be close? I wouldn’t say that about someone like Michael Bisping.”
“And I am not like some huge Bisping fan, I just think he can scrap and he is very competitive. Put him in with anyone and he will give it a competitive fight. But then Anderson is something else… put it this way, put Bisping in with Anderson and it would be interesting.”
The interview was conducted in two parts, the link to Part II is above and if your interested in reading Part I click HERE.