Is Rashad Evans undersized for 205?

by cauliflower_ears on Nov 16, 2009 1:39 PM EST Comment 36 comments

Promoted From Fanposts To Frontpage By Kelvin Hunt

It's been officially announced that the Rashad - Thiago Silva fight will now be the UFC 108 main event.

So this got me thinking - Will Rashad be able to overcome the size deficit against Silva and other future opponents? I mean, look at some of the guys he could be up against - Shogun, Rampage, Tito, Luiz Cane and other guys such as Lil Nog, Jon Jones, Randy, the janitor....etc etc. They are ALL significantly bigger than him.

Sure, he beat perhaps the largest LHW around in Forrest Griffin but Forrest doesn't exactly have KO power, great wrestling or great bjj. Even if he does get past Thiago Silva, I shudder when I think of what someone like Cane would do to him.

Rashad would be perfectly suited to the Franklin-Wanderlei-Vitor weight class. But since there won't be a 195 division anytime soon, I think 185 would be great for him. If Wanderlei felt the need to drop down, Rashad certainly should. At 5'11, he can easily make the cut.

What do you guys think?

Poll

Is Rashad too small for 205?

Yes. But he'll do fine.

43 votes

Yes. He needs to drop down to 185.

38 votes

No.

28 votes

109 votes | Poll has closed

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Only Rashad knows what Rashad’s body is capable of. I can’t even begin to speculate

by EVeezy on Nov 16, 2009 1:29 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I think he's fine at 205

I mean think about it…dude was fighting at HW before he dropped to LHW…I think his speed and explosiveness(when he fights with a good gameplan) can nullify the size advantage some have on him…not to mention he has a very good wrestling base…

Now if he didn’t have the wrestling base….yea, I’d say he’s in trouble…

good topic cauliflower!

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by Kelvin Hunt on Nov 16, 2009 1:42 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Agreed. Rashad Evans is fine at 205.

Remember, he won TUF at heavyweight.
Jason Lambert is bigger than Rashad. So is Chuck Liddell, Stephan Bonnar, Forrest Griffin, Tito Ortiz, Sam Hoger and Brad Imes.

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by VeeisAnimated on Nov 16, 2009 2:23 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

rashad evans is at the perfect weight. when he was on tuf show he fought at hw

you did see in when he fought brad imes. that guy was 6 foot 7 inches and probably 275 pounds. rashad threw him all over the place. that is mad dog strength. he knocked out chuck liddell when it still meant something to knock him out. liddell was on the canvas for at least 5 minutes. he has striking power and awesome wrestling abilities and he would crush that coward rampage. he will have the lhw title back around his body in one year.

yes i am obsessive, obnoxious, in your face and all about covering the spread. those are my good qualities.

by wolfmanshowlforever on Nov 16, 2009 2:40 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

No, Rashad proved he can hang wih the best ,

by Pinnacle77 on Nov 16, 2009 1:43 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

He’s not a huge LHW, and could probably benefit from a drop to this phantom 195 weight class, but it’s not like he’s one of these guys that weigh 215 fighting at HW. He’s got good speed, and even though we haven’t seen it lately his wrestling it still good.

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by -Neil- on Nov 16, 2009 1:54 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Weight is secondary to skill... most of the time.

I think Rashad appears to hit like a true LHW, and I dont see him getting thrown around either… I think these days alot of fighters are hung up on weight and size, brought on by the “Brock Lesnar” phenomenon.

Alot of trimmer, less bulky guys compete quite well in their weights, my favorite example is Frankie Edgar, who looks (and claims) he actually is 155! Imagine that, fighting what you walk around at.

by ziontiger on Nov 16, 2009 2:12 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

great point

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by Kelvin Hunt on Nov 16, 2009 2:20 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

dude you can't be serious?!

i can categorically guarantee you that Suga will never be LHW champ in the next year

Machida mauled him for the arrogant, nipple tweaker he is.

watch

and this is Dana telling Shogun (what we ALL know) that he’s the real champ

and Rampage has already informed our King, Mo that his take down defence is sick, which will nullify Suga’s questionable wrassling pedigree before he feeds him leather

in summary, he can’t beat the #1, #2, or #3 (should he ever return)

in short, no.

"I had to fight all my life to survive. They were all against me... but I beat the bastards and left them in the ditch." ~ Ty Cobb

by RearNakedPoke on Nov 16, 2009 4:51 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

whoops, meant to be a reply to my boy wolfmanshowlforever

"I had to fight all my life to survive. They were all against me... but I beat the bastards and left them in the ditch." ~ Ty Cobb

by RearNakedPoke on Nov 16, 2009 4:52 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

sure when matt hughes destroyed our boy gsp he had no chance in the second fight right?

please. rashad will be back and wrestle the now mortal lyoto machida to the ground and bust a move, bust a nose and break a jaw. machida is the one being the hunted now. much different position. rashad would beat rua too. his wrestling abilities are unmatched in lhw division. peace.

yes i am obsessive, obnoxious, in your face and all about covering the spread. those are my good qualities.

by wolfmanshowlforever on Nov 17, 2009 10:26 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

firstly...

1. for a fighter with un-paralled and un-matched wrestling skills he clearly is either indifferent to using them or doesn’t hold them in as high esteem as you do (siliar to myself mind you) because we haven’t seen a great deal of them for something so “potent”

2. Lyoto Machida was mortalised by a Muay Thai wrecking machine not a wrestler, and IF (and thats a big if mind you) a rematched Evans does ever land his hands on the Dragon he has a black belt sumo practioner to try and take dowm. i’ll happily bet any day that he gets not one single take down. further i bet he gets dropped, again, before he gets anywhere close to shooting in on him

3. Rua would maul him. Badly. And i will happily watch that any day :)

4. Randy Couture is a LHW….

i’ll leave it at that

"I had to fight all my life to survive. They were all against me... but I beat the bastards and left them in the ditch." ~ Ty Cobb

by RearNakedPoke on Nov 17, 2009 11:40 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Yo

I know you and wolflman going at it…but…if Rashad Evans went in with the gameplan to take Machida down…he would be able to do it…I mean Nakamura took Machida down for Christ’s sake!

Evan’s problem has been that he’s KTFO out guys and relied on that solely(I said this before he got KTFO by Machida)…if he(and Koscheck) went back to utilizing their wrestling ALONG with their improved striking…they would be hard to beat…

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by Kelvin Hunt on Nov 17, 2009 11:48 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

indeed

i reckon he’s closed up that hole in his game tho as it was 5 fights ago and he’s improved immensely, mind you i might be proven completely wrong someday

in saying all this, i don’t see him getting anywhere near Machida. i see him being put on his ass, again, witha big egg shape prtruding from his head….

it’s an interesting one though :)

"I had to fight all my life to survive. They were all against me... but I beat the bastards and left them in the ditch." ~ Ty Cobb

by RearNakedPoke on Nov 17, 2009 12:00 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

We’ll agree to disagree here.

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by Kelvin Hunt on Nov 17, 2009 1:05 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Yo

I know you and wolflman going at it…but…if Rashad Evans went in with the gameplan to take Machida down…he would be able to do it…I mean Nakamura took Machida down for Christ’s sake!

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by Kelvin Hunt on Nov 17, 2009 11:48 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

the only way machida beats evans a second time is if he happens to get three karate judges

at once. as for the randy couture comment. if brandon vera had half the wrestling ability of rashad eveans he would have won the fight by taking randy down. i had randy to win only b/c he can focus on the fight. b. vera just seems to goto lala land during big fights and all you have to do is look at his postfight comments. evans is smart and right not to fight couture. there is no upside to it. i’ll just wait till evans destroys thiago silva and goes 19-1. plus i lost all respect for machida the man who claimed he had honor and had his head held down before the decison b/c he knew he lost but as soon as he heard he won he was very happy and honor had nothing to do with it. then in post fight comments his attitude was even worse i can’t wait till evans groundnpounds the zhit out of him. in fact i can’t wait till anderson silva gets knockout the same way bisping did vs henderson. peace.

yes i am obsessive, obnoxious, in your face and all about covering the spread. those are my good qualities.

by wolfmanshowlforever on Nov 17, 2009 12:46 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

that's when machida knew he lost to rua

yes i am obsessive, obnoxious, in your face and all about covering the spread. those are my good qualities.

by wolfmanshowlforever on Nov 17, 2009 12:50 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

-Machida didnt need judges the first time, rashasd needed paramedics. he’ll need a neurologist the next time

-vera took Randy down, that doesn’t make him a better wrestler

-machida shouldn’t be held to task for representing his win, he did what he had to do. the judges were at fault. he’s entitled to an opinion too, it doesn’t make him dishonourable and i believe shogun wud share that view too seeing as he didn’t lambast him

we’ll wait and see…as i said to Kelvin, it’s an interesting one :)

"I had to fight all my life to survive. They were all against me... but I beat the bastards and left them in the ditch." ~ Ty Cobb

by RearNakedPoke on Nov 18, 2009 3:42 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

what's funny is machida is going to lose to rua in canada

evans will beat thiago silva and then they fight for the lhw belt. machida left to fight randy couture. lol. evans beats rua the same way forrest did. flatten him out and groundnpound. only time will tell but i picked aldo to beat mike brown in the exact round in the exact way. made 200 dollars on that fight. watch anthony johnson crush koscheck too. late first round or early second round. ktfo. peace.

yes i am obsessive, obnoxious, in your face and all about covering the spread. those are my good qualities.

by wolfmanshowlforever on Nov 19, 2009 12:34 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

nice, great call

enjoy the dough bro, i had him too and also have rumble…

i would suggest two things in passing to you, regarding rua. he has already “beaten” machida so it wont be that surprising if he repeats the feat and griffin beat a rua off the surgeons table (twice i believe with his knee). he’s back to 2005 form and ready to rule the LHW division for some time (seeing as he has the measure of machida, his nearest opponent IMO). he wud have ruled pride too cept for wanderlei being his team mate…

"I had to fight all my life to survive. They were all against me... but I beat the bastards and left them in the ditch." ~ Ty Cobb

by RearNakedPoke on Nov 19, 2009 4:12 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

ask mr hunt. griffin flattened rua out in late second or third round and started landing

strikes and the ref stopped it. i do think rua is completely healthy and would beat griffin now. yes rua did win the first time. i had him and he was a +370. that would have been a nice payday for one fight. i also have kendall grove at +160 to beat jake rosholt. rosholt got kinda lucky with an unprepared and self admitted guy who said he did not train at all for fight. k.g practice’s hard and always comes to fight. grove submits rosholt in second round. i hit dan hardy to and he was bet up to +200 in lake tahoe. i’m 7-1 in my last eight mma fights and you can look at the ufc 106 moneylines and see the rest of the fighters i took. i did notice something. harrarh’s did not have a line on cane fight. i don’t know if the fight is not happening or maybe it’s a different opponent. if not. i’ll take luiz cane over nog. i like his style. unlike most fighters who are good for the first round baroni, wilson g. d. kang. luiz cane gets stronger as fight goes on. i like that. peace.

yes i am obsessive, obnoxious, in your face and all about covering the spread. those are my good qualities.

by wolfmanshowlforever on Nov 19, 2009 10:22 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

rosholt got lucky vs lebon

yes i am obsessive, obnoxious, in your face and all about covering the spread. those are my good qualities.

by wolfmanshowlforever on Nov 19, 2009 10:23 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

yo

they probably don’t have the Cane/Nog fight because they don’t know much about lil nog…

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by Kelvin Hunt on Nov 19, 2009 10:35 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

yep. nevada is not taking any more chances with the dogs

look at how many have hit in wec, bowles, henderson and aldo. i was lucky to get aldo at +200 early b/c he went down to +140 at fight time. that is alot of money going to the underdog. to me it was an easy pick. i would like to think i convinced enough people to place there money on aldo. lol.

yes i am obsessive, obnoxious, in your face and all about covering the spread. those are my good qualities.

by wolfmanshowlforever on Nov 19, 2009 8:57 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

cool :)

"I had to fight all my life to survive. They were all against me... but I beat the bastards and left them in the ditch." ~ Ty Cobb

by RearNakedPoke on Nov 20, 2009 10:12 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

i think dana is telling him the fix will be in for rua next time.

yes i am obsessive, obnoxious, in your face and all about covering the spread. those are my good qualities.

by wolfmanshowlforever on Nov 25, 2009 3:16 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Thanks for promoting this to the frontpage :)

by cauliflower_ears on Nov 16, 2009 7:28 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

no problem

good topic…

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by Kelvin Hunt on Nov 16, 2009 9:45 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

As for Rashad being a HW while on TUF, well, so did Petruzelli, Jardine and Whitehead. Joe Stevenson fought at WW on that show. Those TUF weight classes don’t mean much.

by cauliflower_ears on Nov 16, 2009 7:50 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I’m unsure he would handle the cut well.

Bloody hell.

by 3PA on Nov 17, 2009 12:51 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

he does have a wrestling background and those guys handle cuts well. And I don’t know about you guys but he looks a little soft to me. You know? Not BJ Penn-soft but he isn’t all muscle either.

Compare that to

Theres quite a bit of water weight he could easily shed. He should be able to make 185 without cutting any significant amount of muscle. He’ll probably need to try it out a few times before he perfects it but any guy who is 5’11 and walks around at not more than 210 should be able to make 185 easy.

by cauliflower_ears on Nov 17, 2009 1:43 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs