UFC
UFC QUOTABLES: Rashad Evans responds to Dana White, doesn't regret waiting for title shot despite injury
Feb 22, 2011 - 2:07:27 PM UFC QUOTABLES: Rashad Evans responds to Dana White, doesn't regret waiting for title shot despite injury

DISCUSS ALL THIS IN OUR NEW MMATORCH FORUM

...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

"Dana White says what he says, and one thing you can always appreciate him for is his honesty. I guess sometimes his honesty doesn't favor me, but that's fine. That's okay. He can say our fight was boring, but I have a different perspective being in the fight. There was a lot of points in that fight where my heart rate got up a little bit, so I could never agree that that fight was boring.

He says a Hamill fight would be more exciting? I mean, we'll see. Hamill has pretty much the same style that I have, so we'll see if Hamill's able to make it more exciting than I was. If he's saying it was boring because of me, I don't understand that. I watched the Machida and Rampage fight, and that fight was pretty boring to me.

Even knowing what I know now about what would happen during training, I'd make that same decision again [to wait for the title shot]. The problem is, there's no governing body to the UFC to decide who gets the title shot. There's no ranking, so how do I know when I'll get a title shot again? What, when Dana White likes me enough? It's basically on when he likes me, and you know as well as I know, that's not that often. If I get the opportunity to fight for a title because he says so, then I'm going to take it. If I have to wait to take it, I'll wait to take it."

-Rashad Evans talks to MMAFighting.com and blast back at UFC President Dana White for some of White's recent comments about him, including that his first fight with Rampage was boring and he didn't want to see it again and that he was crazy for waiting for Mauricio "Shogun" Rua to heal instead of taking another fight in 2010.

Penick's Analysis: As far as sitting out is concerned, I see both sides of the argument. Rashad's got a great point about the sometimes arbitrary nature of the UFC's matchmaking for title shots, but White also makes sense in discussing the money being left on the table by Rashad during his prime by not fighting. As far as the Rampage fight goes, I don't think it was boring, but it was certainly not up to the hype. Rashad fought a smart gameplan, and there were some very entertaining moments in the fight, but as a whole it was a let down. He's now left in limbo until after UFC 128 as he wants to see if his friend Jon Jones will capture the belt before he makes his next move. And with this back and forth with White, it's possible that he finds himself further from a shot if Shogun retains the title.

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