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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The UFC 170 pay-per-view event now has its headliner, as Rashad Evans revealed during the pre-fight show for UFC Fight Night 33 on Fox Sports 2 that he'll be fighting Fox co-worker Daniel Cormier in a five round main event.
It's the second straight fight for Evans taking on a co-worker, as he defeated Chael Sonnen last month at UFC 167 by TKO in the first round. Evans, the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, has now won two straight fights after dropping consecutive bouts in 2012 and 2013.
The fight will be Cormier's second five-round fight, having gone a full 25-minutes in his Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix win over Josh Barnett in 2012. He's won three fights since then, including both appearances in the UFC, though this will be his first fight at 205 lbs. as he looks to make a run at light heavyweight.
UFC 170 takes place from Las Vegas on February 22, three weeks after the Super Bowl weekend show in UFC 169 in New Jersey.
Penick's Analysis: They didn't have many options with no titles available, but this isn't going to draw well as a pay-per-view headliner. Evans wound up headlining the UFC 161 card in June in non-title action against Dan Henderson, and it was the lowest drawing card of the year on pay-per-view. This is as good a fight as any if they weren't moving anything around, but having a non-title fight headline a pay-per-view is not going to be an enticing proposition for fans.
[Rashad Evans art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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