UFC
Rashad Evans targeting February 2015 UFC return, rules out fighting teammate Anthony "Rumble" Johnson
Jul 29, 2014 - 4:40:20 PM Rashad Evans targeting February 2015 UFC return, rules out fighting teammate Anthony "Rumble" Johnson

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Rashad Evans is on the mend right now from an injury that kept him out of a fight with Daniel Cormier in February. He's going to miss the entirety of this year, but he said on Monday that he's targeting a return by February of 2015.

"I want to return in February," Evans said in an interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. "That's just me giving myself enough time to make sure that I feel comfortable getting back in there because I know when I get back in there, there's nothing but tough guys in my way. I'm definitely going to have a tough fight coming back. I want to be ready for that."

"I was thinking like that earlier and all like, 'It'd be fun to fight Glover [Teixeira] or whoever,' but honestly speaking, the way things are shaping up right now in my weight class, whoever I fight is going to be an interesting match up because I've got a lot to prove coming back from an injury and trying to make that push for the title. Whoever they have up there, whoever is ready for me, whoever they're going to put me up against, I'm ready for whatever."

One name you won't be seeing him against is Anthony "Rumble" Johnson. The two are current friends and teammates with the Blackzilians, and Evans says he's not going to make the same mistakes that happened when he and Jon Jones were teammates at the Jackson-Winkeljohn camp in Albuquerque.

"We fight all the time," Evans said of he and Johnson. "We fight more than the UFC can pay us, I'll tell you that. We fight every single day. We're each other's number one training partners. So, would I fight him professionally? No, I wouldn't. I don't need to fight him. We feed off each other in a lot of different ways and I can't fight him."

"And you're like, 'Oh my god, we've heard this before.' I believe with the relationship that Anthony and I have, that if that bridge ever needed to get crossed, we'll find a way to handle it in a different way than I did the first time."

Penick's Analysis: With Evans out until February anyway, a Johnson matchup wouldn't have been in line with that timetable. Still, it's not surprising that he's getting out ahead of it, because he's been through the process before on this front. With Jones, he was caught off guard, and it led to a fractured relationship and a fight that didn't work out for him. He doesn't want to see that happen with Johnson, and it's more than likely going to be a non-starter if the UFC tries to put it together.

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