Rashad Evans came into UFC 133 in the best shape of his life and improved his career record to 16-1-1 after a 2nd round victory over Tito Ortiz. The fight marked the end of a 14-month layoff for Evans, which allowed many in the business to speculate that his best days were behind him. Determined to show that people have a bad habit of jumping to unrealistic conclusions, Evans benefited from the expertise of trainers and a nutritionist in the months leading up to Saturday night’s showdown.
While Ortiz was certainly deserving of the main event spotlight after shocking the mixed martial arts world with a 1st round submission of Ryan Bader at UFC 132, he remained a long-shot in the eyes of Las Vegas odds makers. Ortiz was never able to mount an effective attack, but did draw the attention of the raucous crowd during an attempt at a guillotine choke, which Evans was able to quickly wiggle out of. A few takedowns in the first and second round essentially sealed the judges interpretation of the action, but Evans left it out of their hands with a thunderous knee to the mid-section of Ortiz that was followed by a flurry of punches and stoppage at 4:48 into the 2nd.
Evans came into the fight at 204.5 pounds, and the chiseled state of his upper body spoke volumes about his remaning capabilities and his level of determination. A week prior to the fight, Evans was visited by WBC Light Heavyweight Champion Bernard Hopkins, who was very energetic and informative over the course of a ten minute cram session about footwork and landing quick hooks. The meeting was heavily covered by the media, who stood by as Evans seemed to soak up as much from the wily veteran as he could.
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