Former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans has lost back to back fights for the first time in his career and was recently defeated at UFC 156 by Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
He will return to action on June 15th at UFC 161 and will face former Pride, UFC and Strikeforce champion Dan Henderson.
Evans (17-3-1) was a c0-host on last night’s edition of UFC Tonight on FUEL TV and addressed his fight against Henderson. He knows what Henderson likes to do inside the cage and explained what he will need to do to walk away with a victory.
“Dan Henderson is no secret, Evans said. “The power of Dan Henderson is in his huge right hand. He has great take down offensive, he has a wrestling background and he will get you on the ground and do ground-and-pound. For me, what I need to do is fight my fight. I need to have my transitions, from my punches to my takedowns, and they need to be sharp. No lazy half-shots. No pitty-pat punching. I need hard punching and hard takedowns.”
If Evans is unable to defeat Henderson at UFC 161, is the former champion worried that he could be released from the UFC?
“No, I’m not worried about losing my job. I put in a lot of good fights at the UFC and I’m confident that I’m not going to lose my next fight.”
What would Evans do if he is not victorious at UFC 161?
“If I lose my next fight, I would consider dropping down a weight class. If I drop down to 185 and things weren’t going right, then I would think about retiring.”
This is not the first time that Evans has mentioned the possibility of moving down to the 185 pound division and is interested in a fight against current UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
Time will tell whether Evans ends up moving down in weight, but it has become obvious that this is something that has been on his mind when thinking about his future.