Liddell KO Earns Evans Immediate Title Shot

Rashad Evans UFC MMA

In a press conference held after UFC 88, Dana White announced that Rashad Evans would next be facing Forrest Griffin for the light-heavyweight title:

“(UFC CEO) Lorenzo (Fertitta), (UFC matchmaker) Joe (Silva) and I got together and thought yeah, he deserves the title shot,” White said. “How could you say, ‘No, he doesn’t deserve the shot’ after [the Liddell fight]?”

White said he had a date in mind but wouldn’t share it until the organization has the opportunity to announce some other upcoming cards.

Sugar Rashad’s stunning upset increased his overall record to 12-0-1 (7-0-1 in the UFC). I wouldn’t argue that Evans deserves a shot at the belt more than the winner of the (postponed? nixed completely?) fight between Lyoto Machida and Thiago Silva, but timing is certainly working in his favor; Griffin needs a title defense, and Evans is available. Unfortunately, the UFC’s hope of a big money fight between Chuck and Forrest is now up in smoke, and they’ll have to put in major effort to convince fans that a title scrap between two TUF winners is equally worth buying. After his nipple-tweaking, pop-n-locking, Fred Sanford-imitating ring antics last night, Evans’s likeability is still a big question mark.

Written by admin on September 7th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on News and UFC 88 and Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans and UFC and Chuck Liddell and MMA.

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