If Rashad Evans is to defeat Jon Jones and reclaim the UFC light-heavyweight championship, he will need to be better than he was against Phil Davis, his coach Mike Van Arsdale says.
Even Rashad Evans’ coach was a little disappointed.
After the UFC on FOX 2 headliner between Evans and Phil Davis proved to be more or less a 25-minute wrestling match, the head coach at Imperial Athletics today spoke to The MMA Show with Mauro Ranallo and shared in the general sentiment that the former UFC light-heavyweight champion didn’t have his best performance.
“I didn’t feel great about the fight. I felt Rashad could do better than that,” Van Arsdale said. “He could have let his hands go more. He could have taken some shots and taken Phil down, but he basically sprawled-and-brawled like Chuck Liddell. We hit the highest peak we could for this fight, but we can take Rashad up a lot higher.”
The reason Evans didn’t hit that preferred peak, Van Arsdale says, is because his training camp was interrupted as he was dealing with some things that the coach couldn’t elaborate on.
“The area he needs to improve on is his preparation before the fight,” Van Arsdale said. “Now that the fight’s over, I can say he only had a four-week training camp. He had a few things going on where he had to take a few breaks here and there. I knew he wasn’t 150%, but it was enough to beat Phil.”
And speaking of Davis, Van Arsdale says they had a feeling he would use his wrestling skills to neutralize Evans, and says it was that wrestling which caused a stalemate between the two combatants. But he also said that, even though it wasn’t always pleasant to watch, both guys were going at it as hard as they could.
“Phil Davis is a tough guy. I thought he would wrestle Rashad and he did. We were prepared for that,” the 1988 NCAA Division I National Champion at 167 pounds at Iowa State University said. “A lot of time in these big fights, there’s a lot of hype around it, you know you have five rounds ahead of you so you start wrestling and it takes it out of you. Typically wrestling matches are five or six minutes and guys walk off the mat with their arms tired, but you can’t do that in MMA. You saw both guys get a little fatigued out there and that’s what happens when there’s a wrestling base out there.”
And while Van Arsdale was disappointed in his own fighter’s performance, he was equally as disappointed in Davis’.
“I expected more from Phil Davis. I thought his standup would be better,” the coach said. “Having 10 months to train, I thought he would have picked up a few more things in his standup. I knew he would be strong wrestling right away but would not expect Rashad to be as strong as he is, especially in his hips. When Rashad sprawls, he’s really heavy and hard to deal with. I knew Phil would be shocked when Rashad sprawled and he felt how strong he is.”
Still, there are some positives Van Arsdale can take out of the fight, the most prominent being Evans’ mindset and focus heading into battle.
“The most impressive thing about Rashad is that he has a fighter’s mentality. He actually likes doing this (for a living),” the coach said. “With Rashad, he zones in, he likes to fight, he looks forward to a fight, and he loves his job. When people love their job they tend to do really well at them. I think that’s the most impressive thing, that there’s something in him that he can draw out, something inside that he goes to when it’s time to fight. He just loves to go in there and do it.”
That’s a good thing, because Evans isn’t going to have much time to just sit and relax. After reaffirming his position as the No. 1 contender in the light-heavyweight division, Evans only has a few months to train and get ready for his biggest challenge to date when he takes on UFC light heavyweight champion and pound-for-pound kingpin Jon Jones at UFC 145 in Atlanta on April 21.
The two have had a grudge brewing for a while now but will finally lock horns in what is sure to be one of the most anticipated fights of the year. Van Arsdale expects it to be a tough fight for Evans, but thinks there are ways his pupil can win.
“Looking at Jon Jones, I know he has a tremendous reach, great leverage strength and he’s a decent athlete, but he’s not very fast,” the coach said. “You don’t want to go ties (when wrestling him), you want to go side-to-side because he’s really hard to beat in the clinch. But if you make him wrestle hard and change levels he’s not very good. I think he’s really strong and that he’s very dangerous on the top, but not so much when he’s on the bottom. Everyone has a weakness and something you can take advantage of. I think Evans has an excellent chance of getting his hand raised and getting his belt back.”
The oddsmakers clearly disagree, as they have pegged Jones as a 6-to-1 favourite. But if his coach is right, then Evans has a much better shot at winning that the bookies care to believe.
Either way, the Jones-Evans saga will finally reach its conclusion on April 21, and the fans are excited. And, with their well-established problems with one another, you have to believe the fighters are, too.
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