It’s now been a year since Rashad Evans last fought in the UFC and the former light-heavyweight champion has revealed that it’s still going to be a few more months before he’s finally ready to set foot in the Octagon again.
Evans lay-off hasn’t come through choice. He tore his ACL early in the year and has since been undergoing rehab following surgery in March, and while he was eager to return earlier, he still needs more time to get back to 100%.
“My leg isn’t strong,” Evans told Ariel Helwani. “I can’t explode off it like I normally used to be able to and it still feels unstable. My management team wouldn’t let me take the fight. Glenn [Robinson] said, ‘At this stage of your career there is no need to rush into a fight especially coming back from a major injury’.”
That puts talk of a fight with Alexander Gustafsson in January on ice and it looks as if the UFC will now move to find the Swedish fighter a different opponent in the first couple of months of the year.
As for Evans, despite his lengthy absence he still remains in the top 5 of the 205lb rankings following back-to-back wins over Dan Henderson and Chael Sonnen, so he can still expect a big name opponent when he does finally return to action.
