Speed, explosiveness and bad wheels
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The old adage is that speed kills, and earlier in his career that was certainly the case with Rashad.
It was his surprising speed and his ability to close distance rapidly to either land a strike or hit a takedown that allowed him to beat great fighters like Liddell, Griffin and Ortiz. Having thunderous striking power probably helped too.
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While he was beatable back then, as Machida proved, fighters able to manage distance like Lyoto were few and far between. And his only other loss during that timeframe to Jon Jones is hardly one to be ashamed of.
The Nogueira loss was a little harder to stomach, but Lil’ Nog always was a very capable boxer and for whatever reason, Rashad made the decision to fight him in his strongest area. That fight did expose some of Rashad’s issues with technical boxing – namely too much reliance on his speed – but didn’t really signal the beginning of the end.
I think his decline has really been caused by a combination of his injuries and his fighting mileage adding up.
As we all know, multiple knee injuries can easily strip an athlete of their explosiveness and their speed, particularly as they reach their late 30s as Rashad now has. And Rashad’s game was never truly built around being more technical than his opponents’, it was more that he had enough technique to allow his speed to do the damage.
In terms of fighting mileage, I think it’s quite clear now too that Rashad is not as aggressive as he once was and that makes sense as well – a fighter’s durability decreases with age and Rashad was never known for having a granite chin to begin with, although his recovery powers were second to none.
It makes sense for him to be less aggressive in order to protect a declining chin, but the problem then becomes that he no longer has the explosiveness to surprise opponents with a big shot on the counter.
At his peak, Rashad Evans was a phenomenal fighter and one of the best athletes to set foot inside the Octagon. Unfortunately for him his athletic peak, I feel, is now gone, and that means he can’t fight in the same way he used to.
Could he adapt his game? Possibly, but I think it’s doubtful – so much of his success was always built around him having a speed advantage and it’d be hard to change that at this point.
I think the best route for Rashad would probably be to hang it up. He belongs in the UFC Hall of Fame and he’s one of the best 205lbers in UFC and MMA history for my money, but this is a decline I don’t think he can turn around.
It’s not been a dramatic fall from grace, more a slow decline – almost the opposite of his rise up the ranks.
Agree? Disagree? Think Rashad can still turn it around? Let us know!
Until next time.....
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