Rashad Evans turned down Glover Teixeira fight on short notice at UFC 153

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

UFC President Dana White has been calling out numerous fighters as of late for turning down short notice fights as the UFC has been scrambling with injuries. However, oftentimes it's the right move for the fighter being presented with the fight.

Case in point: Rashad Evans. The former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion served as a guest analyst for Fuel TV's pre- and post-fight shows for Saturday's UFC on Fuel 5 event from Nottingham, England, and revealed that he had recently turned down an offered fight from the UFC.

"I don't know [when I'm fighting next]," Evans began when asked. "I talked to Dana [White] early this week and we talked about maybe December. But I'm thinking maybe January or February. I will fight anybody. I want to get a fight at light heavyweight. They offered me a fight, but it was against Glover Teixeira and I only had three weeks to fight and I haven't been training. I was like, 'no way, not with that notice in Brazil.'"

That was for next weekend's UFC 153 event in Brazil, which was shaken up when Teixeira's originally scheduled opponent, Rampage Jackson, and UFC Featherweight Champ Jose Aldo were both removed from the card on the same day due to injury. The UFC targeted several names for Teixeira, ultimately winding up with Fabio Maldonado, but Evans was one of their first options.

Still, Evans didn't feel ready for that fight, and thus didn't take it. He expanded upon his reasoning on Twitter over the weekend as well.

"I will fight anybody with the proper notice," he wrote. "But after [eight years] with the UFC & being one of their top earners, [why] would I take a bad fight?! Bad fight meaning not being in shape. Losing is hard enough but I will never serve myself up! If I haven't been training I won't fight!

"I know a lot of [you] fans may not realize but I don't walk around ready [to] fight. No one does. In this sport it takes at least [eight weeks to be] ready! Fighting another person is much harder than most [people] think & if [I'm] not training it takes time [to] get ready. There [are] no easy fights!"

Penick's Analysis: This is very reasonable from Evans, and showcases why it's not in a fighter's best interest to step up on short notice all the time. There are times when it is, when it's a big fight and payday against a fighter well above your ranking, and even if you lose it doesn't send you down the ladder. That's why it made perfect sense that Chael Sonnen would jump at the chance to fight Jon Jones on eight day's notice. It's also why it made perfect sense for Jones not to want any replacement on eight day's notice that he hadn't prepared for. In Evans' case here, three weeks to take a fight against a fighter who is still unknown to most UFC fans, and to do so in that man's home country, it didn't make any sense, and was a lose-lose scenario with very little time to prepare.

[Rashad Evans art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_14531.shtml

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