Dana White Claims Rashad Evans Indicated He’s Ready to Retire Following UFC 225 Defeat
It wasn’t an enjoyable night to be a fan of Rashad Evans on Saturday.
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UFC President Dana White met with the fighter known as “Suga” after the defeat.
“When he lost, I had him come back to my room,” White said at the
post-fight press conference. “We hung out and talked, and yeah,
it’s sad. Rashad was on Season 2 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” so he
was around through the whole building of this company. We all get
old, man, and this is a young man’s sport. But if you look at what
he [did], he won “The Ultimate Fighter,” he became a world
champion, he [built] this team where he was like the guy and built
all these young up-and-coming fighters. He’s been in big, huge
fights.
“He’s been on the ride with us the whole way and he got to close it out in his hometown of Chicago, so not a bad run.”
Evans is just 2-7 in his last nine bouts, but he has enjoyed a successful run during his tenure with the Las Vegas-based promotion. He captured light heavyweight gold with a third-round stoppage of Forrest Griffin at UFC 92 and also owns notable wins over the likes of Chuck Liddell, Michael Bisping, Quinton Jackson, Tito Ortiz, Phil Davis and Dan Henderson, among others.
When asked if Evans told him that he was ready to call it a career, White indicated that the longtime UFC veteran did say the end had arrived.
“Yeah, he did. Yeah,” White said. “Again, I don’t want to stomp on his — if he was going to retire or whatever, I don’t want to steal the thunder from him. “And obviously after a fight like that, he’s super emotional too. So yeah, I hope he does.”
Evans, meanwhile, issued a lengthy statement via Instagram after UFC 225 but did not officially announce his retirement in the post.
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