UFC on FOX 2: Rashad Evans And The Smoke And Mirrors

Forrest WAS an elite fighter. Sadly, Anderson broke him mentally and he hasnt recovered. that is Evans’ best win imo, the Rampage win is not far behind.

in my opinion he’s yet to defeat anyone of true relevance outside of maybe Thiago Silva.

Chuck? Rampage? Forrest? The only people left at LHW he hasn’t faced and/or beaten in the top10 of the division are Davis, Shogun, Lyoto and Jones.

Chuck Liddell should have been retired at this point in his career

??? He just came off of the unanimous decision win over Wanderlei and was 21-5 going into that fight.

I’m NOT a ‘Shad fan at all, but I have to agree pretty much unanimously that he’s top5 and almost assuredly top3 based upon achievements and career record.

I certainly think that Davis has some avenues to win, as you’ll see when our picks article goes up, but Rashad has done enough in his career to earn a top slot in the division. Completely disagree with you on this.

but he hasn’t been active at all in the last few years. I really don’t like rankings because they rarely account for this kind of stuff. Look at how many times they have both fought in the last few years, and you see a serious divide.

In the last three years, Evans has fought 4 times. Gustafsson on the other hand has fought seven times in the same time frame, has finished all his opponents, and only has one career loss to Davis. Yes, Evans has bigger names, but Hamil and Matyushenko aren’t that bad either.

I give Rashad credit for destroying Chuck’s chin for all of eternity with that overhand right. I know Rich officially retired Chuck, but that bomb from Evans was the career ender.

Saying that “Hendo, Gustaffson, and Davis all should be ranked a lot higher than Evans” is utter nonsense.

Going through these guys’ UFC wins (and in Hendo’s case, going back 4 years) in a similar manner to your breakdown of Evans’ wins:

Phil Davis:
Nogeira – Nog is over the hill and besides, it took Davis a round before he got going
Boetsch – undersized, now at 185
Wallace – went 0-3 in the UFC, his two other defeats are to guys that are now 185’ers
Gustafsson – still very green at this point
Stann – undersized, now at 185

Alexander Gustafsson:
Matyushenko – over the hill and never elite
Hamill – never elite
Te Huna – not even close to elite
Diabaté – is less comfortable on the ground than a fish
Davis – a loss
Hamman – undersized, now at 185

Dan Henderson:
Shogun – somewhat over the hill, should perhaps have been a draw
Fedor – over the hill
Feijao – not elite
Babalu – over the hill
Shields – a loss
Bisping – not elite
Franklin – split decision win
Palhares – not elite, certainly not in 2008
Anderson Silva – a loss
Rampage – a loss
Wanderlei – good win

Could someday contend for the title, but a snowball has a better chance lasting 5 minutes in hell than Phil Davis does winning this fight against Rashad Evans – who I think is one of the very, very, few men who MAY conquer MT.BONES….

Chuck had only lost two fights since his title reign going in to the fight with Rashad. It was Rashad was only the second to KO him and start the trend.

Bisping and Rashad were both undefeated LHW’s in their fight, and it was 4 years ago.

Forrest was the freakin champion, regardless of what you think about his fight with Rampage. And, yes, Rampage was probably not exactly in his best shape when he fought Rashad, but it’s still a win over a top fighter.

And, in general, I’d say the consensus is that Rashad is rightly favored, not that Davis has no chance at victory.