A major light-heavyweight fight between former champion Rashad Evans and Daniel Cormier will headline UFC 170 in Las Vegas on February 22nd.
Evans had hinted at the possibility of the fight taking place last week, and he confirmed it’s now official during the pre-fight show at ‘UFC Fight Night 33’.
This will be former Strikeforce heavyweight grand-prix winner, Cormier’s debut at 205lbs after notching up two victories over Frank Mir and Roy Nelson in the UFC’s heavyweight division this year.
He has his sights set on a title fight with Jon Jones, but with the champion having unfinished business to attend to with the likes of Glover Teixeira and Alexander Gustafsson, Cormier needs to stay busy in the mean time and he’ll face a stern test here.
Evans is currently on a two-fight win streak, having defeated Dan Henderson by split decision and then TKO’ing Chael Sonnen in the first round at UFC 167 last month.
Those victories helped somewhat to banish the memory of a disappointing decision loss to Antonio Rogerio Nogueira earlier in the year and an unsuccessful title challenge against his former training partner Jon Jones.
A win over Cormier would be the next step towards rebuilding his momentum for another title push, so there’s a lot at stake for both men.
