5 great MMA fights we missed out on

#5 Rashad Evans vs. Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua

After their fight at UFC 128 fell apart, the UFC never matched Shogun Rua with Rashad Evans again

Another great fight that we came painfully close to seeing; a clash between Rashad Evans and Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua in late 2010 would’ve been a match between two men who were at the time, quite clearly the two best 205lbers on the planet. Evans was coming off one of the biggest wins of his career over ‘Rampage’ Jackson, while Shogun had just dethroned Lyoto Machida to claim the UFC Light-Heavyweight title.

Various injuries to Shogun delayed the fight until 2011, but eventually, a fight between the two men was signed for UFC 128 in March of that year. Unfortunately, about six weeks before the fight, Evans blew his knee out and was replaced by Jon Jones, and well, we all know what happened from there. Jones destroyed Shogun to become the top Light-Heavyweight in the sport.

Evans took his shot at Jones in April 2012 and was beaten, and after that, neither he nor Shogun came close to another title shot. Strangely though, the UFC never tried to match them together again despite the fight seemingly being a natural one to make.

Why it never happened is anyone’s guess, but it would’ve been pretty awesome to see – even in 2012 or 2013 after both men had been beaten by Jones. Would Rashad’s boxing and wrestling skill have been enough to get him past Shogun’s whirlwind combination of striking and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu? It’s a massive pity that we never got to find out.