Former UFC light heavyweight champ Rashad Evans (15-1-1) waited almost a year for another opportunity to fight for the UFC title but a recent training accident has put those dreams aside.
Evans had been waiting for current champ Mauricio “Shogun” Rua to recover and were scheduled to meet at UFC 128. An injury to Evans knee has seen him replaced by fellow teammate Jon Jones, who Evans says he won’t fight if Jones wins the title.
In a recent interview with MMAFighting.com, Evans was asked whether he’d make the decision again to wait such a long time just to get a title shot and what a win for Jones would mean to his own pursuits.
“Even knowing what I know now about what would happen during training, I’d make that same decision again. The problem is, there’s no governing body to the UFC to decide who gets the title shot. There’s no ranking, so how do I know when I’ll get a title shot again? What, when Dana White likes me enough? It’s basically on when he likes me, and you know as well as I know, that’s not that often. If I get the opportunity to fight for a title because he says so, then I’m going to take it. If I have to wait to take it, I’ll wait to take it… Neither of us controls the key to the future. It’s out of our hands, so whatever happens, happens. So I can’t be mad at that. I just have to live with what happens next. I still want to be champion. I still consider myself the best guy in the weight class, so it’s tough to swallow, but you just have to go forward. That’s all you can do.”
Read what else Evans has to say including his response to comments by Dana White that Evans’ fight versus Quinton “Rampage” Jackson was a “snoozefest” at the link above.