With the original main and co-main events scrapped due to injuries, company president Dana White avoided a UFC 151-like fiasco by pitting Rashad Evans against Dan Henderson in tonight’s main event at UFC 161.
Ranked sixth at 205 pounds in the UFC, former light heavyweight champ Evans must fight with urgency to halt the first two-fight losing skid of his career. Henderson, the UFC’s oldest fighter and the only man to ever hold belts in both Strikeforce and Pride, will take one last crack at getting back into title contention with another win over a former champ.
The last time a pair of former NCAA Division I wrestlers squared off in a UFC main event was when Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar went at it for the third time at UFC 136.
Even the oddsmakers were confused with this one, as evidenced by Bovada.com’s decision to name Evans a 1.4-to-1 favorite (-140) to beat Henderson (+110).
But the Evans vs. Henderson bout won’t represent the only captivating matchup at UFC 161.
Here are last-second predictions for every fight on the Evans vs. Henderson fight card.