Rashad Evans continues knee rehab, targets September return to UFC
Following a pair of knee surgeries that kept him from fighting for all of 2014 and the start of 2015, former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans is finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel for his return to the Octagon.
Evans suffered the original knee injury last year as he was preparing for a fight against Daniel Cormier in May. Evans was hungry to come back as soon as possible, but did too much and hurt his knee a second time.
He was forced to pull out of two separate fights in January against Alexander Gustafsson and February against Glover Teixeira before finally conceding to the fact that his knee wasn't 100 percent yet and his return had to be delayed.
Now a few months after his latest surgery, Evans is on the mend but approaching his comeback with a smarter mindset this time so he's not forced to miss more time in the cage.
"I'm feeling good. I'm three months out post operation and I'm feeling way better than I did with the first surgery," Evans told FOX Sports. "It just feels like a totally different experience. I'm still taking my time with it, but I'm making sure I stay on what I need to do so I can return."
For the first time since attempting to schedule a fight in February, Evans is confident he can announce a target date for his next bout.
The time off has been hard on him because he's had to watch the light heavyweight division continue to churn in his absence, but every time he's forced to watch someone else succeed it only drives his own desire that much more.
"I want to return in September. I'm so hungry, I'm so anxious and I just want to go out there and get a chance to compete," Evans said. "Not being able to compete and sitting on the sidelines, watching everybody else compete really just made me a different fighter.
"It just made me appreciate the sport on a different level and I'm excited when I get the chance to go out there and fight again."
In the wake of Jon Jones suspension and a new champion being crowned in May between Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson not to mention a slew of new faces decorating the division, Evans is excited to see what challenges the light heavyweight division have in store for him.
He's not ready to start calling out anybody by name just yet, however, because September still seems like a long time from now and Evans would rather focus on getting ready before he finds out about his next opponent.
"There's a lot of new faces," Evans said. "A lot of people to beat up and I love to beat people up so I can't wait to go out there and fight and get some of these matchups that I think are going to be fun matchups for me."
