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-The Tough Spar MMA Team
Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Rashad Evans was forced to pull out of his UFC 170 fight with Daniel Cormier due to a knee injury last week. Evans who was expected to possibly be recover in as little as four weeks, will now have to undergo surgery on his now and could be looking at as long as six months before he is fully recovered.
This is a huge change from what was earlier reported. The UFC even went as far as trying to target the fight on the UFC 172 card in April, but it looks like that will not happen. An injury is definitely a huge set back for the 34-year-old fighter who still has aspirations for being the UFC champion again. Losing months of competition like this again will not help him get to the title. Rashad has all the tools to make it to another title shot, but he needs a few more wins to get there. Had he not gotten injured and he was able to stop Cormier, he would have catapulted back to the top and possibly been facing Jones shortly depending on how well Alexander Gustaffson performs in London next month against Manuwa. I hope that no matter what happens with Cormier as he faces Cummins, that the UFC is able to get this fight rescheduled.
Fox Sports Analyst and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Rashad Evans has fallen to injury this week and will not be able to compete in a contest with Daniel Cormier next weekend at UFC 170. The UFC has decided to do away with the bout for now. It is rumored that the UFC may possibly be targeting the bout for UFC 172 if Evans is healthy.
In the meantime, Daniel Cormier has took to Twitter to ask for possible replacement opponents calling out Chael Sonnen and Anthony "Rumble" Johnson. He has also asked to maybe take a fight at heavyweight. Both men already have opponents in the next few months, but Sonnen replied saying that he was up for filling in for Evans. It is unlikely that the UFC will book a replacement opponent on such short notice with UFC 170 right around the corner, a little over a week away.
The UFC's 4th ranked heavyweight and former Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Champion, Daniel Cormier will be making his Light Heavyweight debut against Rashad Evans at UFC 170. Daniel Cormier last fought at UFC 166 in October at heavyweight against Roy Nelson and weighed in a little over 220 lbs. We are over two weeks from UFC 170 and it appears that Cormier will not have any trouble with cardio or making weight in a few weeks. Cormier recently released this photo via social media and already is down to 212 lbs. His opponent Rashad Evans started his UFC career as a heavyweight and quickly made the jump down to 205 lbs.
Who wins the UFC co-main event between Rashad Evans and Daniel Cormier?--Tough Spar MMA
In late November, former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Rashad Evans hinted to the public that he may possibly be facing Daniel Cormier in Cormier's 205 lb debut. It has now been officially announced that the two of them will be facing each other at UFC 170 on February 22 in Las Vegas. I feel that this will be a tough test for Cormier as a first fight in a new weight class. Cormier is an Olympic level wrestler with good striking who has remained undefeated in all of his 13 pro MMA bouts. So far Cormier has defeated two former UFC champions (Josh Barnett and Frank Mir) and if he were to defeat Evans, he would make it three champions defeated. This is a very important fight for Evans, who is getting back to his usual winning ways after a split decision win over Dan Henderson and a first round TKO victory over Chael Sonnen in November. If he were to win this fight followed by another fight I think we could see him challenge for the title again by late 2014 or early 2015.
Also added to the card is a Welterweight fight between two of the top contenders in the UFC Welterweight Division who both are coming off of losses in their last bouts. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu specialist and former title challenger at 185 lbs, Demian Maia, will suare off with GSP's training partner Rory MacDonald. Rory MacDonald is coming off of a decision loss to Robbie Lawler who easily out-scored him in there bout at the UFC 20th Anniversary event, UFC 167. Rory was very reserved in that fight and lacked aggression after promising to entertain in that fight. Demian recently lost to high-level grappler Jake Shields in their main event fight at UFC Fight Night 29.
Plus a bout between Rafael dos Anjos and Rustam Khabilov in the UFC's Lightweight clash between two exciting fighters.
Rashad Evans has hinted that he may possibly be facing Daniel Cormier in Cormier's first fight in the UFC's Light Heavyweight Division soon. Nothing has been confirmed or set in stone, but Evans revealed on UFC Tonight that there had been talking about it the fight possibly happening. Stay posted to Tough Spar MMA as we will follow this story and make sure that we inform you as soon as we get more details.
Last night was a very entertaining night of fights that ended with a very controversial split decision win for the UFC Welterweight title.
We will begin with the headlining fight of the prelims. Donald Cerrone who was on a two-fight losing streak coming into his fight with Evan Dunham and he desperately needed a win last night and he got it. He was able to out-strike and out-grapple Dunham and eventually finish him on the ground with a beautiful triangle choke in the second round. The question now becomes what should Donald Cerrone do now after his win? Should he continue to fight at 155 or should he make the move to 145 as he had stated he would do win, lose or draw?
The first fight on the main card was a fast-paced fight between Tim Elliot and Ali Bagautinov. It was an interesting fight in which both men participated in excellent striking exchanges which involved Tim Elliot landing more volumes of strikes and Bagautinov landing the more devastating strikes. It was a match in which I had Bagautinov winning rounds 1 ad 3, but felt the fight could go either way depending on what the judges saw was more important, volume or clean, power strikes. In that fight the judges chose accurate, clean, power strikes. The question for this match up would be how many wins would Bagautinov be away from a title fight and who will he face next?
The next fight was the first of three fights at 170 lbs on the main card. Tyron Woodley faced Josh Koscheck in a match that ended in the first round by way of TKO. Koscheck hurt Woodley early in the round with a straight right hand that made Woodley begin to step backwards, but Woodley survived that and some impressive grappling from Koscheck in order to rock Koscheck with a right hand and send him flat on his back. The question I have is how would Woodley perform is he is given a top ten opponent for his next fight?
After that match was GSP's training partner, Rory MacDonald taking on Robbie Lawler in the second welterweight fight of the main card. After promising to be more exciting than his last fight, we saw MacDonald do exactly the same thing he did in his last fight, which was boring us to death. Robbie Lawler won a split decision after he out-struck MacDonald and kept pressure on him the entire fight. There were moments when MacDonald did get the better of Lawler, but those moments were few and very short. What will happen to Rory MacDonald after putting out two terrible performances? Also will this win put Lawler in the top 5 in the UFC's Welterweight Division? Also who will Robbie Lawler face next?
The co-main event of the evening included a bout between friends and coworkers, Rashad Evans and Chael Sonnen. It was a match up in which Rashad quickly put away Chael Sonnen on the ground due to strikes. Who will the UFC put against Evans who has recovered from his two-fight winning streak? Does Evans still have the ability to become the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship again?
In the main event we saw a very close match in which we could have seen either man get their hand raised at the end of the fight, but Georges St-Pierre retained his title by split decision. The fight was too close to call, but (contrary to popular belief) I did score the fight for the champ giving him rounds 1,3 and 5. There is also controversy as to whether or not Johny Hendricks tapped out to a submission in the first round of the fight. Video below:
I think that it is obvious to see that Hendricks didn't tap, but many people are entertaining this notion of GSP having a submission ignored. After the fight St-Pierre hinted at possibly needing some time away to deal with some things in his personal life. Dana White had a conversation with the champ and says that GSP will overcome his personal issues and will not be retiring. He also stated that GSP owes Hendricks a rematch they look forward to putting that together.
Below is a prediction on how I felt that the event would play out and the actual results that occured:
Also be sure to vote for who you believed was the true winner of the main event last night at: UFC 167 Main Event Poll
Georges St-Pierre def. Johny Hendricks via split decision Rashad Evans def. Chael Sonnen via first-round TKO Robbie Lawler def. Rory MacDonald via split decision Tyron Woodley def. Josh Koscheck via first-round KO Ali Bagautinov def. Tim Elliott via unanimous decision
Preliminary Card:
Donald Cerrone def. Evan Dunham via submission (triangle choke) Thales Leites def. Ed Herman via unanimous decision Rick Story def. Brian Ebersole via unanimous decision Erik Perez def. Edwin Figueroa via unanimous decision Jason High def. Anthony Lapsley via unanimous decision Sergio Pettis def. Will Campuzano via unanimous decision Gian Villante def. Cody Donovan via second-round TKO
Georges St-Pierre (170) vs. Johny Hendricks (170)
Rashad Evans (205) vs. Chael Sonnen (206)
Robbie Lawler (170) vs. Rory MacDonald (171)
Josh Koscheck (170) vs. Tyron Woodley (171)
Ali Bagautinov (126) vs. Tim Elliott (125)
Preliminary Card:
Evan Dunham (156) vs. Donald Cerrone (155)
Ed Herman (186) vs. Thales Leites (186)
Brian Ebersole (171) vs. Rick Story (170)
Edwin Figueroa (135) vs. Erik Perez (135)
Jason High (170) vs. Anthony Lapsley (170)
Sergio Pettis (135) vs. Will Campuzano (135)
Cody Donovan (205) vs. Gian Villante (205)
It has been made official that the UFC and Dana White have put together Top Ten competitor in the Middleweight and Light Heavyweight Contender, Chael Sonnen and Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Rashad Evans in as the Co-Main Event at UFC 167. This fight has been rumored and talked about for a little while and now it officially joins the UFC's 20th Anniversary Show in Vegas.
Both men are amazing wrestlers who can use their wrestling as an offensive attack as well as takedown defense. It will be interesting to see who will get the better of the wrestling if this match becomes a grappling war. I believe that Rashad Evans has the better striking between the two of the fighters. One thing that Chael has that could be a major factor in this fight is the ability to pressure his opponents during fights. It's too soon to try and even guess who will be the winner of this bout, but it has the potential to be an awesome fight.
This fight joins UFC 167 which is being headlined by Georges St. Pierre defending his title against top contender Johnny Hendricks. Fights also on the card are Robbie Lawlor vs. Rory MacDonald and Tyron Woodley vs. Josh Koscheck. This is shaping up to be yet another stacked card for the UFC. Let's pray that injuries do not ruin this amazing card.
