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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
By the time UFC 133's main event begins, Rashad Evans will have been out of action for nearly 15 months, and with the lengthy time away from the cage he was ready to fight anyone when Phil Davis was forced out of the event.
Evans now meets Tito Ortiz for a second time, a rematch from the first fight in his career to not end with his hand raised with the two fighting to a draw. After that fight took place, it was a rematch Evans had wanted, but when Ortiz continued a down-slide in his career after that fight, Evans didn't think a rematch would come about.
"The challenge kind of got extinguished a little bit," Evans said in an interview with MMAFighting.com. "He wasn't staying consistently hot. It was something I thought about back then, but as time went on, I thought about guys who would be more of a challenge. Coming off this win, it's looking like he's got a little fire underneath him. He's moving in the right direction, so right now is the perfect chance to fight him again."
However, Ortiz turned things around in a big way earlier this month when he defeated Ryan Bader and snapped his five fight winless streak. For his part, Evans said he was actually rooting for Ortiz in that matchup.
"I'm not going to lie, I was happy for him," Evans said. "I wanted to see him win. He hadn't won a fight in five years... It was like, 'There you go!' I just wanted to see him win a fight. I hadn't seen him do it for so long. Sometimes, it's good just to be happy for somebody."
"I don't think nobody was more surprised than Tito. Tito was over the moon about it, he was so surprised he won a fight."
That said, Evans is ready for the rematch, and feels the experience he's gained since they fought four years ago puts him at a much bigger advantage.
"I've had a lot more experience since then," he said. "I've been in a lot of big fights, had a lot of success, and that says it all. For him, he's been on a rocky road. He's had to go down a path he never walked before. Losing all those times in a row, all that heartbreak, stuff like that. You never know how that hurts someone's mentality..."
"If he wants to fight, I appreciate him taking the fight, but I'm going to smash him. I've been training so long, I just want to fight somebody."
Penick's Analysis: Evans had a whirlwind week of wondering who he'd be fighting, and went from a slight favorite against Davis to a significant underdog against Lyoto Machida to a heavy favorite over Ortiz. He should have plenty of confidence going into the rematch because he's continued to improve since they first fought while Ortiz just finally won a fight since then. It's going to be a big return fight for him, and if he does what he says he's going to do and "smashes" Ortiz, he'll be right back into a title fight in the division.
[Rashad Evans art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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