Rashad Evans vs Thiago Silva
With everything that’s been happening in my life recently I forgot to post about the Evans vs Silva fight that went down on January 2nd. In a nut shell, it sucked.
One thing you have to say for Rashad, that guy is in shape. He can go three rounds non stop pushing the fight. And that is exactly what he did in this fight.
Rashad’s strategy was a simple one. Push Silva into the cage, body slam him to the mat, and try and do some ground and pound. He was 2/3 successful in that strategy. Evans basically bullied Silva around for most of the fight. He took him down at will, tied him up on the cage, and frustrated the hell out of Silva.
But,honestly, that’s all he did. When he wasn’t shooting in on Silva he was running away from him. The stand up in the fight was almost non-existent with Evans contantly driving and pushing Silva to the cage and onto his back.
The end of the third round remains a mystery to me. Silva’s strategy throughout the fight was equally unbalanced as Rashad’s. For Silva it was all about stand up. Stand up, fight, make big hit, knock him out, me want more, repeat. The problem was Rashad was far too fast on his take down’s and Silva’s take down defense just sucked.
But that brings us back to the third round. Silva finally got to do some of his stand up. And just as we all know he has the power to do, he tagged Rashad good right on the button (chin). Rashad felt it too. He would tell Joe Rogan after the fight that his legs just about gave out on him after the punch. The big mystery is, why didn’t Silva press the fight after he had Rashad hurt?
Silva had a chance to put Rashad away. He didn’t take it. Rashad was hurt and Silva let him recover. For whatever reason I don’t know. Overall, the fight was boring. Rashad respected Silva’s stand up strength and just tried to stay away from him and use his athleticism to dominant Silva, which he did do, and won a decision.
I wonder how Rampage would have done under those circumstances. Quinton has worse ground game and take down defense than most fighters. Perhaps we’ll see that in the future. I do hope everyone understands, when you get a chance to star in as B.A. Baracus in a remake of the A Team, you take the job. Dana White, don’t be too mad at Rampage, its the friggin A Team we’re talking about here! There will be time to setup another Evans vs Jackson fight. Do it this summer, charge 55 dollars for HD Pay per view and quick your bitchin.
