Rashad Evans would not fight Belfort if he wins, drop to 185 unlikely right now
Former UFC Light Heavyweight champion Rashad Evans has had a lot to say about tomorrow’s title fight between Jon Jones and Vitor Belfort, and with good reason. For one, Jones is his former training partner and student who eventually rose to a level high enough to defeat Evans at UFC 145. On the other hand, Evans has been enlisted by Belfort to be his head coach heading into tomorrow’s main event. Should Belfort win, Evans may find himself in a compromising position were he to choose to continue chasing the Light Heavyweight crown he once possessed. Still, Evans believes he did enough in his fight with Jones to expose a few holes in his game, and has helped Belfort enough to defeat the dominant champion. He appeared on “MMA Uncensored Live” to discuss the details of his findings:
“I picked up a lot. I was in there for five rounds. I saw a lot, and I felt a lot. I have a pretty good idea of some the things he’s strong at and some of the things he’s weak at. I hit him with a few good shots, and I had a few good opportunities, in the fight, but I just wasn’t able to stay at the level for the whole fight. I’ve been working on myself to make sure that never happens again. I let myself down, in that area — being conditioned to fight that kind of fight and to keep the kind of pace I needed to stay at. I think that Vitor — we train him enough to be able to fight where I wasn’t able to.”
Evans believes that Belfort can succeed where he had failed. That remains to be seen. Obviously Jones has a skill set that Belfort, while extremely talented, will have a tough time dealing with. He is a legendary underdog, but if anyone has a puncher’s chance, it is Belfort with his lightning-fast hands. Evans publicly dismantled Jones’s decision to fight a teammate, something they said they would not do as teammates at Greg Jackson‘s. This reasoning stills holds true for Evans, who said he will not fight Belfort if he pulls off the monumental upset:
“No. I’m not gonna fight Belfort. I’ll figure out a fight for me. You know, Jon Jones was saying, ‘I dunno what Rashad’s doing. He’s coaching somebody to fight for the belt that he wants.’ I do want the belt, but when you compete, and you really have a love for competing, you understand what it’s really about. What’s for me is for me, and what’s for somebody else is for somebody else. I believe I’m gonna get mine, either way. I don’t see a problem with helping somebody else become champion.”
Quite the mature words from Rashad Evans, who only months ago engaged in an epic trash talk battle with Jones and has often been considered a heel throughout his career. Talk has been circling of Evans dropping to 185 to face Anderson Silva, but he answered the speculation with this:
“I would consider dropping to 185, but the problem is, I’m kinda heavy right now. I might have to do a practice cut to get down there before I make any commitment to fight at 185. I’ve never cut weight like that, not since college. And, I always told myself, I said, ‘If I compete again, there’s no way that I’ll turn myself into what I did in college, as far as living just to cut weight and stuff like that.”
