We last saw Rashad Evans nearly a year ago, when he went against Glover Teixeira. Rashad suffered a first round knock out loss in that one. Since that fight Rashad has done some soul searching and looks to rejuvenate his career by dropping down to the middleweight division.
Lyota Machida, also a former light heavyweight champion, dropped down to middleweight and was able to be a real force, challenging Chris Wiedman for the middleweight championship.
Dropping down a weight class seems to be a new trend in MMA, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. 145 has been a division that many fighters have dropped down to and seen little to no success. Anthony Pettis picked up a big win, then failed to make weight and decided to move back up. Diego Sanchez, B.J Penn, and several others have taken a chance going to 145 and had to move back up.
Rashad posted pics leading up to his Middleweight fight against Tim Kennedy, he was looking lean and in great shape. His fight with Tim Kennedy was canceled, the New York Athletic Commish denied Rashad a fight license. This was a high profile card, the first ever UFC event in New York. The fight was rescheduled to UFC 206, again Rashad was denied a fight license. Apparently an MRI revealed “irregular findings.”. I’ve got to wonder, what fighter doesn’t have those.
Regardless. Rashad is medically cleared and is expected to take on Dan Kelly for his middleweight debut, March 4th, on the UFC 209 card. Rashad is 2-2 in his last four fights at light heavyweight. Rashad won the second season of The Ultimate Fighter as a heavyweight. When he takes on Dan Kelly at middleweight, that will be his third different weight class that he has fought at in the UFC.
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