Rashad Evans

By Michael Hatamoto

Rashad Evans is willing to drop down from light heavyweight to middleweight, but wants to be given fights against top-ranked opponents.

A fight with former contender Chael Sonnen is possible, according to Evans, even though both fighters serve as analysts on FUEL TV.

Here is what Evans had to say to MMA Live:

“I’m ready. I stay ready. Chael will always be an interesting fight, but we work together a lot for FUEL TV, so I don’t know if it will happen. Besides, I think Chael might be going up [in weight]. I’m never one to back away from a fight, so if Chael wants to come up, we gotta do it. Ultimately, [I’d like to fight someone like] Anderson Silva, but I would have to establish myself in the weight class, so they say. I don’t know. As a matter of fact, Dana White, CALL ME! Joe Silva, CALL ME! I just wanna fight the best competitors. It’s really hard to go down a weight class after you lost a fight, it doesn’t leave a good taste in your mouth, so I may have to get one back at 205 before I go down to any weight class.”

Evans has only lost twice throughout his career, being knocked out by Lyoto Machida and dropping a unanimous decision to Jon Jones – but the former light heavyweight champion could be better suited for middleweight.

Expect Evans to test himself by trying to cut down to middleweight before he looks to make a UFC middleweight debut in the cage.  Despite being an underdog if he meets middleweight champion Anderson Silva, there are plenty of other matchmaking opportunities of Evans plans to stick around for a while.

However, I’m curious to see how fast Evans can be in the middleweight division – he often relied on quickness to outwit opponents at light heavyweight, but will be able to land heavy shots and keep pressure on opponents?