Rashad Evans explains why he declined fight with Glover Texeira
When Rampage Jackson was ruled out of his UFC 153 bout with Glover Texeira due to injury, it appeared the matter was settled when Fabio Maldanado stepped up to take the fight. News has arisen today that former Light Heavyweight champion Rashad Evans was offered the fight, but ultimately declined it. Evans was initially critical of Jon Jones for his decision to turn down a replacement fight with Chael Sonnen at UFC 151, but today took to Twitter to explain his reasoning behind not fighting Texeira:
I will fight anybody with the proper notice.. But after 8yrs with the UFC & being one of their top earners. Y would I take a bad fight?!
— Rashad Evans (@SugaRashadEvans) September 30, 2012
Bad fight meaning not being in shape. Losing is hard enough but I will never serve myself up! If I’m haven’t been training I won’t fight!
— Rashad Evans (@SugaRashadEvans) September 30, 2012
Fighting another person is much harder than most ppl think & if im not training it takes time 2 get ready. There r no easy fights!
— Rashad Evans (@SugaRashadEvans) September 30, 2012
Evans would make for the third big-name Light Heavyweight to turn down a fight with Texeira, who has been highly touted with a winning streak outside of the UFC. However, his only UFC win was a submission victory over Kyle Kingsbury, so that would hardly qualify him as a threat to all the top fighters at 205. Perhaps the upper echelon fighters view it as a lose-lose situation where a win would gain them little but a loss would be devastating. Either way, Maldonado stepped up to make what should be an exciting fight in Brazil.
