Lidell vs Evans Back on for UFC 88

By MMAWeekly.com Staff 5 hours, 26 minutes ago

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Former Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight champion Chuck �??The Iceman�?? Liddell is set to return to action at UFC 88 on Sept. 6 as he faces Rashad Evans in a 205-pound showdown that could have title implications on the line. The UFC officially announced the bout on Monday.

The two fighters were set to meet each other at UFC 85 in London early in June, but Liddell suffered a hamstring injury that forced him out of the bout. Evans was then set to meet heavy hitter James Irvin instead, but Irvin suffered a broken foot and the former �??Ultimate Fighter�?? winner was pulled from the card entirely.

Liddell is returning to action after an impressive win over longtime rival Wanderlei Silva at an event in December, as he looks to get back to the light heavyweight title.

Evans is still working with an undefeated record, but has been out of action since November 2007 when he won a split decision over Michael Bisping at UFC 78.

The event at the Philips Arena will be the first UFC to take place in Atlanta and tickets will go on sale to the public on June 21.

More bouts for UFC 88 are expected to be announced shortly.

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My only thought is how the heck has Lidell’s hamstring healed enough to even consider a sept. fight. wow.

I see no reason why Rashad doesn’t deserve a title shot if he wins this fight. I think he would need to win two more fights at the most. I would like to see Silva, Shogun and Machida be involved in the title shot race as well. Shogun v. Machida, Silva v. the winner of Iceman/Evans, then the winner of those two fights fight for a title shot.

This is, of course, assuming that Rampage wins, which is definitely not a given seeing as how stacked Forrest looks lately. But all I can say is that Wandy would be a great light heavyweight champ, and I would love to see him v. Rampage again.

man this is going to be exciting. i’m like 30 minutes away from atlanta so im gonna be there =)

Man do i love the light heavy weight division

Ah yes! Finally the UFC makes it to our backward-ass state.

Good for Atlanta, but I was never really feeling this fight to begin with.

Agreed. No real interest on my part.

[quote]Donut62 wrote:
Good for Atlanta, but I was never really feeling this fight to begin with.[/quote]

[quote]Damici wrote:
Agreed. No real interest on my part.

Donut62 wrote:
Good for Atlanta, but I was never really feeling this fight to begin with.

[/quote]

I had no interest, until it was canceled…

[quote]Ruggerlife wrote:
Damici wrote:
Agreed. No real interest on my part.

Donut62 wrote:
Good for Atlanta, but I was never really feeling this fight to begin with.

I had no interest, until it was canceled… [/quote]

glad I’m not the only one. I have no idea why they made this fight in the first place, nor why theyre remaking it now. Evan’s snooze fest against tito should knock him out of contention until he actually beats someone. People talk about machida being boring, he’s NOTHING compared to evans

Where is Shogun and his old man knees? I’d much rather see him and Chuck go at it, which was the original plan if memory serves me correctly.

We really need a 205 tournament. As far as I’m concerned, about 8 guys deserve a title shot. Title bouts having to revolve around TUF is really getting old.

Shogun’s had complete ACL reconstruction, that can be a lengthy recovery. Also added to the 205 mix is word that Vera may be dropping down finally.

[quote]analog_kid wrote:
Where is Shogun and his old man knees? I’d much rather see him and Chuck go at it, which was the original plan if memory serves me correctly.

We really need a 205 tournament. As far as I’m concerned, about 8 guys deserve a title shot. Title bouts having to revolve around TUF is really getting old.[/quote]

A tournament in every division would be sweet, as far as I’m concerned. There’s a bunch of welterweights and lightweights that are all bunched up and no one really knows who the No. 1 contender is. This would solve a lot of speculation.

And yeah, tying a division’s belt up on TUF is very annoying.

[quote]KBCThird wrote:

glad I’m not the only one. I have no idea why they made this fight in the first place, nor why theyre remaking it now. Evan’s snooze fest against tito should knock him out of contention until he actually beats someone. People talk about machida being boring, he’s NOTHING compared to evans[/quote]

But that’s the good part about this fight, as much as I think Evans sucks, statistically, they have to keep him there since he hasn’t lost, now Chuck is going to kick his ass and demonstrate who really belongs in the top tier, kind of like what happened to Jardine. I’m looking forward to Rashad getting a serious ass-whooping and the UFC hopefully sending him out to fight for Elite XC or somewhere else…

Speaking of which, what becomes of Jardine now? Everyone was thinking he was top-tier after he beat Chuck, and a lot of people were saying he was going to clobber Wandy. Now that Wandy proved that Jardine ain’t quite top-tier, he’s gonna’ have a long road back before he’s given a shot against any of the top guys (Chuck, Wandy, Rampage, Hendo). He doesn’t look young either; anyone know how old Jardine is?

[quote]m1sf1t wrote:
KBCThird wrote:

glad I’m not the only one. I have no idea why they made this fight in the first place, nor why theyre remaking it now. Evan’s snooze fest against tito should knock him out of contention until he actually beats someone. People talk about machida being boring, he’s NOTHING compared to evans

But that’s the good part about this fight, as much as I think Evans sucks, statistically, they have to keep him there since he hasn’t lost, now Chuck is going to kick his ass and demonstrate who really belongs in the top tier, kind of like what happened to Jardine. I’m looking forward to Rashad getting a serious ass-whooping and the UFC hopefully sending him out to fight for Elite XC or somewhere else…

[/quote]

Speaking of things like tying up divisions with TUF, and having divisions bunched up with a lot of potentially equal-level top contenders, is it just me or does everyone else find it just fucking stupid and wasteful that the better guys only fight 2 to 3 times per year? WTF?! They’re FIGHTERS – it’s what they do and train for full-time!

I know they can’t be fighting once a month or anything, as they need to recover from fights and from injuries, train for the next opponent, make weight, etc., but come on! Assuming a guy doesn’t get injured, 5 or 6 fights a year seems totally possible. And this would accomplish a few REALLY useful things:

1.) It would sort out much more quickly who the top contender is in a given division, rather than having to wait 5 or 6 or 7 months before each of the top guys has a fight again after his previous one.

2.) It would allow the UFC to put on MUCH more stacked cards, EVERY time – which, with their roster, they’re COMPLETELY capable of doing. They have no excuse for not having the top five fights on every card be really, REALLY great, highly anticipated match-ups between top contenders.

3.) This would make the UFC even more of an “elite-level” org, as the 3rd- and 4th-tier guys wouldn’t fit on the cards, so they could let them filter out to the WEC, or EliteXC, Strikeforce, whatever, and have the UFC consist ONLY of real, legit 1st- and 2nd-tier fighters. Dana White said they have over 180 guys under contract (!). That’s just silly.

[quote]Donut62 wrote:
Shogun’s had complete ACL reconstruction, that can be a lengthy recovery. Also added to the 205 mix is word that Vera may be dropping down finally.[/quote]

Im looking very forward to Vera dropping down. Been wondering for while when/if this is going to happen.

[quote]Damici wrote:
Speaking of things like tying up divisions with TUF, and having divisions bunched up with a lot of potentially equal-level top contenders, is it just me or does everyone else find it just fucking stupid and wasteful that the better guys only fight 2 to 3 times per year? WTF?! They’re FIGHTERS – it’s what they do and train for full-time!

I know they can’t be fighting once a month or anything, as they need to recover from fights and from injuries, train for the next opponent, make weight, etc., but come on! Assuming a guy doesn’t get injured, 5 or 6 fights a year seems totally possible. And this would accomplish a few REALLY useful things:

1.) It would sort out much more quickly who the top contender is in a given division, rather than having to wait 5 or 6 or 7 months before each of the top guys has a fight again after his previous one.

2.) It would allow the UFC to put on MUCH more stacked cards, EVERY time – which, with their roster, they’re COMPLETELY capable of doing. They have no excuse for not having the top five fights on every card be really, REALLY great, highly anticipated match-ups between top contenders.

3.) This would make the UFC even more of an “elite-level” org, as the 3rd- and 4th-tier guys wouldn’t fit on the cards, so they could let them filter out to the WEC, or EliteXC, Strikeforce, whatever, and have the UFC consist ONLY of real, legit 1st- and 2nd-tier fighters. Dana White said that have over 180 guys under contract (!). That’s just silly.
[/quote]

I think 5 to 6 times is alot, probably too much unless the fights are all blowouts. 4 times sounds about right. 2 is too few.

I think in the short run it would sort out the top contenders…for that year. You might have 5 or 6 guys who can beat each other on any day and who can beat anybody else below them. Realistically I think the b and c level guys are neccessary. I don’t think for the fighters sake you could make them fight A level guys every fight for 5 or 6 fights a year. I think they would burn out. There would probably be a guy or two who would lose a bunch of fights even if he is a top fighter.

In boxing guys get tune-up fights and gimmes. Build up the guys confidence and his marketability. Especially after losses. It is better than not fighting at all, since they stay busy, stay sharp.

Tournaments I think are a good idea. I think a grand prix every year is a fine idea. Though guys would end up having 30-10 records since he would always end up fighting the toughest guys every year and in many instances the same guys. Who then can make adjustments.