Prior to a scheduled fight with Tim Kennedy at UFC 205, former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans reported that there were “irregular findings” in an MRI administered on October 19. The New York State Athletic Commission directed him to take further tests, which the fighter reports that he passed. However, the NYSAC made the decision to keep Rashad Evans out of his UFC 205 middleweight fight with Tim Kennedy as a precautionary measure.
Both fighters received their show money, and the fight was rescheduled to UFC 206 on December 10, in Toronto, Ontario. Unfortunately, it happened again. Controversial former Ontario athletics commissioner Ken Hayashi also denied Evans from getting a license to fight.
During a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, Evans reports that the medical issues are behind him.
“I’m going to fight,” said Evans, as transcribed by Adam Guillen Jr. for MMA Mania. “What happened in New York was a misunderstanding with the brain MRI thing. The radiologist read the same radiology exam, and then gave two different assessments of it.”
“For 2013 he said it was fine and nothing wrong with it, then for 2016 he was looking at the same identical image and then he said I had new changes; which to the commission was like if you have changes to your brain is injured then you can’t compete. Upon further review after having everything tested and looked at, it was pretty clear what happened, and it was just a radiologist not doing his due diligence. At the end of the day it cost me, it is what it is and I was able to put it behind me and move forward. “
Evans plans to be back in the Octagon by March or April. He had hoped to fight Anderson Silva, but The Spider fights Derek Brunson at UFC 208 event on February 11, 2017, in Brooklyn, New York. Suga is ready take on anyone on the middleweight roster, including the #15 ranked Thales Leites.
