Evans eying Jones showdown in April

By Tim Hobscheid, Fightnews

On Saturday night, Rashad Evans scored a unanimous decision victory over Phil Davis, securing a title shot against Jon Jones in April.

When asked about his victory, Evans stated, “I felt good about the performance, but you always strive to be better. There were a couple of opportunities that I wish I would have capitalized on. I wanted to put on a more spectacular fight for the fans, but I can’t be too overly critical.”

Evans earned the decision with scores of 50-45 on all three judges’ scorecards, but lacked the ability to finish an opponent who was visibly tired. Davis threw a lot of punches, but failed to connect on many of them.

“Normally my strategy is to strike first and use that to control the tempo of the match,” said Evans. “He was able to use his hand speed to dictate out there.”

Now that Evans has earned an opportunity to regain the title that once belonged to him, he’s focused on demystifying current titleholder Jon Jones to regain the light-heavyweight crown.

“I’ll be ready to fight in April. I’m excited to finally get the opportunity to fight Jon and give people the fight that they want to see…He was a really good training partner, he had the fighting spirit in him, but I have some advantages over Jon Jones that other people don’t have.”

One thing’s for sure, Evans is ready for this matchup to finally come to fruition: “I hope this is the last time that you’ll have to say that I’m the #1 contender.”

In the co-main event, Chael Sonnen earned a razor thin decision victory over Michael Bisping.

When asked about Bisping’s effort, Sonnen stated, “Michael Bisping hit me so hard in the first round, I had no idea what day it was. I was never in a position in which I was comfortable tonight, not one. I don’t have a bad thing in the world to say about the guy. The only round that I knew I had was the third. That was my goal, to win a controversial decision.”

Bisping was not discouraged by the loss in the slightest: “Chael is widely regarded as number 2 in the middleweight division. I feel like I got a moral victory, though moral victories suck. I intend to do this for a hell of a lot longer. This is not the last you’ll see of me. I will be fighting for the title, and I will bloody win it.”

Sonnen is certainly no fan of current titleholder, Anderson Silva, and he weighed in with his thoughts on a possible Bisping vs. Silva fight by saying, “I assure you, Bisping could win the title today if they gave him his opportunity.”

With this victory, Sonnen earned himself another chance at Silva, but he’s not confident that Silva will be willing to oblige.

“Do I think that Silva will sign to fight, No, I don’t. They’ve offered him the fight four times, and he’s declined the fight four times. I would rather talk about real men like Mr. Bisping.”

If Silva is willing to sign on for the fight, it’s no doubt that Chael will be there. He’s just disappointed that he’ll have to wait so long. “To fight 3 times a year is such a waste of the other 49 weeks,” says Sonnen.

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January 29th, 2012

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