Rashad Evans explains why he declined fight with Glover Texeira
Posted on October 1, 2012, 12:01 PM by Mike DrahotaWhen 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.
Comments
At this rate of top guys ducking him people will start wondering how good he really is!!!
No one wants to fight Glover. The kid is a f**king beast.
Kudos to Maldonado for stepping in. This will be a good test of whether the hype surrounding Glover is justified.
It's not ducking. Glover beat Kingsbu.... Once he beats a top 10, and the top 10 avoids him then yes guys are ducking him.
Glover should be fighting a fringe top 10 opponent.....not the #2 LHW
Yet Jones is supposed to fight Sonnen who isn't even a ranked LHW?
pussayy
No one is ducking him. All of the fighters who have declined fighing him have had legit reasons. The only possible exception being Rua.
I think I should be higher up the list.
what is wrong with being a nerd?
pound for pound *MMA* nerd and I'll accept your list happily
A lot of fight fans do this for fighters...
so does this make you a nerd fan?
I think so.
ha ha itchyballs got RINSED son!
#6! Bu11 Sh^t! I am # 1 baby and in my upcoming death match with Farrell I intend to prove it with a flashing green background!
I always knew i was meant for great things. Now I know what it was.
I'm coming for your #1 spot Keith.
I've known lots of ladies who loved getting them some nerd.
Duh. Everybody knows nerds suck at dodgeball and get picked last in gym class.
Hypocrisy pure and simple.
Two of the most outspoken guys (against Jones for not taking the fight on short notice) were Mitrione and Evans.
When its time to step up themselves they do the exact same thing.
who was mitrione suppose to fight? i do want to see more of what glover can do in the ufc though, especially with all the hype. if the iceman makes him his pupil then we know he has serious hand cannons
KAF- Mitrione was offered the replacement spot against Daniel Cormier.
You're being a little hard on Rashad there, Evan. There's a big difference between refusing to take a fight on short notice when you haven't been training at all (which was the case with Rashad) and taking a new opponent on short notice with a full training camp under your belt (and against an opponent who hadn't been training and is a lot smaller than you), which was the situation with Jones. Further, being champion, Jones has responsibilities as champ that Evans does not have.
As for Mitrione, considering how much smack he talks, he ought to step up when called on, however the gulf in class between him and DC is enormous and I'm kinda glad that fight isn't happening.
hahahahaha....for sure...smack talking Rashad had it handed right back to him....Whos fake now?....and he is being offered alot moretime to prepare than 8days.... Gay
GOW- Actually, I'm not at all. I'm not even saying it was the wrong decision for either person. I'm simply saying that both bashed Jones for his decision not to fight, and then did the exact same thing.
Rashad says he was not in camp at all. However, there is multiple pictures of him training with both Belfort and Anthony Johnson for both of their recent fights. He and Belfort have also spoken at length about how involved with Belforts recent camp he was (as both a coach and a training partner). Meaning yes he might not have been in his own full training camp, but he has certainly been training extensively. The notion that he wasn't involved in a training camp is inauthentic when pretending like that means he wasn't training at all (as is the notion that Sonnen wasn't training at all when he inexplicably started tweeting Jones a bunch 2 weeks before Dan pulled out, which is right around the same point that Dan was allegedly injured). Plus, Jones had 8 days. Rashad was offered the fight with over a month to prepare.
There are minor differences in both situations, but at the end of the day all three did the same thing: Didn't fight opponents on short notice.
"Further, being champion, Jones has responsibilities as champ that Evans does not have."
He might have some responsibilies in representing the UFC at events, and not making a fool of himself in the public eye (which with the DWI he did not complete). However, those responsibilities do not entail fighting any opponent on short notice that can make the 205lbs weight limit. This is entertainment obviously, but it is a sport also. He's not defending the hardcore belt of the WWF.
Rashad- "I declined to fight him because I know he would kick my ass".
Guest Fans who dislike Rashad will taunt and criticize him for this, but his reasons for not taking the fight seem valid to me. Sure it's nice to see guys step at any time to take fights on short notice, but that doesn't mean we should criticize fighter's when they decide not to take that risk.
Especially when they haven't been training much. If Rashad had taken this fight, he'd probably have showed up in really horrible shape and I'm not even sure he'd have been able to make weight on such short notice, especially with the travel to Brazil also being a factor. The guy got a huge payday from the Jones fight and so was probably just taking it easy; it's not his job to step up when he's not in shape to fight.
Band this guy, what are you doing him favores.
No wonder Dana has vertigo......fighters doing his head in not wanting to fight.
Rashad, jones, Machida, Mitrione, Shogun Rua, have all recently not stepped up.
Maldonado likes to bang,cred to him for stepping up and fight Glover,Maldonado had a couple of controversial decision loses in the past,if he loses let's hope they don't cut him,he's one of those that will take on anyone,good boxing background,loves to trade&bang; but Glover is a killah,may the best man win fellas! ;D
Rampage dropped out of 153 in early September, and the fight isn't until Oct. 13th. Almost 5 weeks to prepare.
Jones offered to fight Sonnen or Machida on four weeks notice.
So the question is, is Rashad so out of shape that he needs more than 5 weeks to tune up for a fight? Or is it just more hypocritical BS?
I saw Texeira in the old Tapout episode where the tapout owners goes around sponsoring up and coming fighter and I have to say Texeira was really impressive, the dude has some serious power in his hand. As I remember it, he won with a one punch knock out. No wonder why Suga avoided him.
I ve noticed that Ajichiban has 6 weaks on his "neards" commnet....hahahaah. I wonder who those are....
Not me, i hit funny. If you can't take a joke, you probably are one.
I didn't even see it until just now. I am kind of proud of my inclusion on that list.
LAME
Guys the reason why so many people criticized Bones was coz he was coming off a full training camp and still declined the fight where as Rashad has not had any time to prepare
MMA has really changed in the last couple of years. The way I see it is if you're champ then you have the right to turn down an opponent who is not even top ten in your division. But if you aren't champ then you swhould fight whoever wherever in order to increase your chance of becoming champ. The fact Evans and the rest are highly unlikely to ever be champ at LHW while Jones remains does alter the outlook slightly but if you're not in the game to be champ then you shouldn't be in it at all.