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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
With Michael Bisping losing to Vitor Belfort earlier this month, Rashad Evans has suddenly emerged as a very real candidate to fight Anderson Silva. Should he get past Antonio Rogerio Nogueira on Saturday night at UFC 156, he might just be the next challenger for the UFC Middleweight Championship. If he gets that fight, it's a matchup he believes he'd win.
But Evans also says he's not entirely thrilled about the prospect of fighting the longtime Champion. After all, he's got a lot of respect for Silva, and he doesn't necessarily want to be the one to end Silva's run.
"I'm not a good matchup for him," Evans said in an interview with MMAjunkie.com. "I'm sure he's not chomping at the bit to fight me. He doesn't really have anything to gain from fighting me, so I don't know if he would even want to fight me. I don't know why he would go out of his way to fight somebody like me. If the UFC is not going to make him fight me, then I don't see why he would fight me.
"Besides that, I love Anderson. He's a great guy outside of the cage, and he's one of my favorite fighters to watch inside the cage. To me, to fight him would be a little bittersweet because I know I would beat him. I know I would beat him."
However, it's not just his thoughts about Silva that has him hesitant about the fight. He's also never made 185 lbs., and isn't sure it's something that is entirely feasible at the moment.
"I would have to do a practice cut and see what would happen before I even would agree to something like that," Evans said. "It's kind of hard for me to make 205 sometimes. So 185, I don't know what I'd have to do. I'd probably have to lose some weight in my legs or something, and I don't know how to do that."
"They're overlooking Nogueira, but I'm not," Evans continued about what he needs to get done this weekend. "They've already got me winning the fight and wanting to fight at 185. But for me, it's first things first, and that's fighting Nogueira. That's the only thing I really care about right now. Anderson is I guess a fantasy fight. It has to be the right deal for it to even happen.
"It's just a matter of getting that belt back around my waist. I just want to go out there and compete with the best guys. If I get a chance to fight Jon Jones or Anderson Silva or whoever may have the belt at the time, that's what it's about. I just want to go out there and compete and have fun competing."
Penick's Analysis: It's true that all speculation about that fight is thinking a bit too far ahead right now, it's just that it makes sense to believe that could be the logical matchup next. He does have to get past Nogueira, and he does have to find out whether he can make the cut. However, if he does both of those things, I believe it's still a likely and realistic matchup come this summer. He's going to have to accomplish both of those things, but he's a significant favorite over Nogueira and there isn't a ton left for him at light heavyweight in the immediate future.
[Rashad Evans art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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