Rashad Evans was 'ready' to fight Jon Jones at UFC 197
When Daniel Cormier suffered an injury that forced him out of UFC 197, a few different fighters stepped up to accept the challenge to face Jon Jones on short notice in the main event on April 23.
One of the top choices was former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans, who immediately threw his name into the hat when the UFC needed someone to face Jones in three weeks time.
Evans has a long history with Jones as teammates and then eventually rivals after their friendship fizzled and they engaged in one of the most heated rivalries in the history of the sport.
It all culminated in Jones beating Evans at UFC 145 in 2012, but the former "Ultimate Fighter" season 2 winner was more than happy to accept a short notice rematch for a chance at revenge.
"I was ready to go," Evans told "UFC Tonight" on Wednesday. "I think what it came down to was the fact that with that card falling apart, if I would have went to that card, this card would have fell apart. So they chose the lesser of two evils and brought (Ovince Saint Preux) in.
"So I guess they made the right choice but at the end of the day I believe I'm fighting the fight I was supposed to fight. I think I jinxed myself more than anything because I was willing to fight that fight short notice for five rounds and the next thing you know, I've got this fight for five rounds."
At the time, Evans was still only the co-main event at the FOX UFC Fight Night card taking place in Tampa this weekend. But then Tony Ferguson suffered an injury that caused a change at the top for the show taking place on Saturday night.
Evans was bumped up to the main event against Glover Teixeira with the fight now moved from three rounds to five rounds.
It wasn't ideal, but Evans says he was ready for anything -- including a showdown with arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport -- so adding two more rounds onto his bout with Teixeira is just another hurdle to jump.
"I don't know where I'm going to find that other 10 minutes to be honest, but at the end of the day that's a fight in itself," Evans said. "But I'm not worried, I'm not afraid about it, it's just whatever's going to be is going to be.
"I believe in my training, I believe that I'm conditioned enough to go three five-minute rounds, whatever it takes, I don't care. I'm going to keep pushing the pace and when the fight ends it ends."
The fight against Teixeira comes at a crucial point in Evans' career as he approaches his 37th birthday in September.
He knows a loss would be devastating and would likely put him out of title contention for the foreseeable future. On the flipside, Evans knows a win over Teixeira would put him back into the top five of the division and within striking distance of another shot at gold.
"A win over Glover catapults me right back to where I need to be," Evans said. "I need to be back in the conversation of title contention, I need to get back up there with (Daniel Cormier).
"Having the loss coming back against Ryan Bader, it kind of threw me out of position but now I feel with a big win right here, I can be right back in the conversation of things."
