It was a fight that featured a wrestling based fighter with a muay thai specialist, it was the wrestler that imposed his will for the majority of the fight. Rashad Evans effectively used his striking to set up great take downs for the first two rounds to dominate Silva. He acheived the mount position once and had Silva's back once or twice. However, the larger Silva was able to get up each time without taking much damage at all.
In the first round Rashad was very aggressive landing multiple strikes on Silva as Silva retreated. Rashad then moved in close and scooped Silva with a take down. This was a repetitive occurance through the first round with Silva offering very little in the offense department.
The second round was more of the same, but Silva seemed to defend a little better and was able to get up from each take down a bit quicker than the first round. He did land a couple of legitimate strikes on Rashad in the round. However, it was more of the same as Rashad dominated the early part of the round and seemed to coast toward the end of the round.
The third round was Rashad seemingly playing it safe with a lot of movement. WIth about half the round gone, Silva began to taunt Rashad as if he wanted to get him to stand and trade it out. Rashad kept his cool, but Silva was able to hurt Rashad in an exchange. Evans was in DEEP trouble, but Silva allowed Evans to recover. It seemed as if Evans was still hurt when they engaged again, but Evans was able to brave the storm it seemed by clinching with Silva or dropping down for a take down attempt that Silva defended well. Silva probably cost himself the fight as he allowed Evans time to recover once he was hurt. The judges agree with a unanimous decision victory for Rashad Evans.
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