UFC Light Heavyweight bout: Rashad Evans vs. Phil Davis
Odds: (-210 Evans /+170 Davis )
Betting Pick: Evans
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In the main event of the evening, former Light Heavyweight champion “Suga” Rashad Evans will look to secure his long-promised shot at archrival Jon “Bones” Jones’ Light Heavyweight title. Standing in his way is up and coming contender Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis, who has used his own dominant wrestling to carve out an undefeated professional record and position himself as one of the top young contenders at 205 pounds. Both of these guys have sterling amateur wrestling backgrounds, but Evans has fought much better competition and has had way more time to become a complete Mixed Martial Artist, so this is going to be the toughest fight of Davis’ young career. With a win for Rashad ensuring him a shot at Jones, with whom he has had a very public feud over the last year, and a win for Davis cementing him as one of the top players in the division,this fight has a lot at stake and promises to be very hard-fought and competitive.
Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis is one of the most exciting young fighters in the sport, with a spectacular amateur wrestling background,freakish athleticism, and an undefeated record as a professional. Evans is a rare physical specimen, with explosive quickness and freakish strength, which only helps to complement his technically superior wrestling. Very few athletes in the UFC can do the things Davis can do from a physical stand point. That said, he is still growing as a mixed martial artist, and he seemed to struggle a good bit in his last fight against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. If there is a hole in Davis’ game it is his striking, both offensively and defensively. He does have power but his technique is still a work in progress, and against Nogueira he did not seem able to prevent himself from getting punched. Worse, he did not seem to react well to getting hit, which could be a huge problem against Evans, who has way more knockout power than Nogueira does. If Davis wants to put himself in a position for the title shot he feels he deserves, he is going to have to find away to deal with Evans’ superior striking and experience and try to out wrestle a formidable wrestler, which is clearly no simple task.
“Suga” Rashad Evans is a former Light Heavyweight titleholder and has been the #1 contender, on paper, for well over a year. A series of unfortunately timed injuries have kept Evans from claiming his title shot, and now timing dictates that he clear another hurdle before he gets his chance at Jones’ title. Evans is an extremely dangerous fighter with great takedowns, heavy hands, and a great clinch game that he can use to neutralize opponents. Evans has shown that he has the technique necessary to deal with bigger, stronger fighters,which will come in handy against Davis, who clearly has the physical edge. Rashad’s biggest advantages are his top-level fight experience and his versatility, which mean that he has more tricks up his sleeves from more positions than Davis does. Evans has the luxury of being able to compete no matter how the fight plays out, and is not as dependent as Davis on imposing his own game plan.
This is a tough fight to call for a variety of reasons. For one thing, these two guys have very similar styles and skill sets. Davis is more physically imposing, but Evans has better technique. Evans has far more experience against world-class opponents, but has also been far less active than Davis over the last two years because of repeated injuries. In the end, I think this is going to be an extremely close fight, but Rashad should be able to do enough to earn a narrow decision win. I think their wrestling may largely cancel each other out, and once Rashad starts landing punches I think Davis is going to get much less aggressive rather quickly. Rashad should be able to prevent himself from getting rag dolled while landing enough punches and using his footwork and movement to keep Davis at bay and earn the unanimous decision.
Prediction: “Suga” Rashad Evans by Unanimous Decision.
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