The upper half of the UFC’s middleweight division has really come to life lately with the likes of Chris Weidman and Hector Lombard emerging alongside more established fighters like Chael Sonnen, Michael Bisping, Brian Stann, Mark Munoz and Alan Belcher to name but a few.
One fighter that could really set the cat amongst the pigeons however is former light-heavyweight champion Rashad Evans who last week indicated he’d be interested in a fight with current 185lb champ Anderson Silva.
At that stage he appeared to be indicating he’d only entertain moving down to fight Silva, but now in a new interview with ESPN he indicates that while that is his overall goal, he could be willing to make a more prolonged assault on the middleweight division.
“Yes, I would like to fight Anderson at 185,” Evans told ESPN.com. “Don’t get me wrong, Anderson is my favorite fighter. He’s somebody I’ve looked up to for a long time. But if I had the chance to fight Anderson, it would be a dream come true.
“I’d like to go right into a title fight, but realistically there are other contenders at 185, and to skip over everybody wouldn’t be fair. So, it would make sense for me to establish myself in the weight class and have a fight or two, whatever the case may be.”
So, clearly Evans has given this some real though, but he stresses that he’s not made any decisions just yet.
“I haven’t totally made up my mind. It’s something I’m going to think about a little more in the coming months and see where my body’s at, but I’m definitely giving it serious consideration. The odds of me moving down to 185 are 50-50 or better.”
Personally I’m really hoping that he does make the decision to make this change in weight class as he’s already fought many of the big name stars at 205lbs, and so there’s a lot more fresh challenges for him at 185lbs.
It’d also be great for the middleweight division to have a major star injected into it’s ranks, particularly since Chael Sonnen’s now pretty much ruled out of the title reckoning following his second unsuccessful big to take the title for Silva.
