Rashad Evans Says He’s Cleared For Return, Plans March or April Fight

Rashad Evans appeared on The MMA Hour (via MMA Fighting) and discussed his health status and more. Evans says he’s been medically cleared and would like to fight again in March or April. Highlights are below:

On being pulled from his UFC 205 and UFC 206 fights over an MRI: “I’m going to fight. You know, the thing that happened in New York, it was pretty much a misunderstanding with the brain MRI thing. Because the radiologist read pretty much the same radiology exam and then he gave two different assessments of it. In 2013, he said it was absolutely fine, there’s nothing. And then in 2016, looking at pretty much the same identical image, he said I had new changes, which to the commission was like, wait, if you have new changes with your brain MRI, then your brain is still injured and you can’t compete. But upon further review and having everything looked at and tested up the wazoo, it was pretty clear what happened. And it was just a radiologist not doing his due diligence. But, at the end of day it cost me, and it is what it is, but I was able to put it behind me and move forward.”

On his reaction to being pulled: “I was sick over it, to be honest. Because I felt like I was in great shape. I was probably the best I felt in years. I really wanted to go out there and out on a good show, and it was just like everything…the stars were aligning. And I felt like, this is going to be great. And when that happened, it kind of put me in a really bad mental space just because, I talked to the UFC and they’re like, ‘yo, this is not an easy thing to get by — this could end your career if it doesn’t get handled correctly. This could end your career.’ And that was something that was very hard for me to hear. As somebody who’s very competitive, but more importantly, I felt like I still had a lot of tread left on my tires, and hearing that, and seeing the writing on the wall, not being able to compete, it was a really hard thing for me to get by. It really was.”

On his status: “Everything’s cleared medically, everything is fine, so I’m looking to get a fight as soon as I can. I just want to get out there, and I just want to perform. I feel like I’ve had a pretty good career, but at the end of the day, I don’t feel like I’m finished yet. And I don’t feel like I’ve been punchy or beat up or anything like that, by any means. In all my years of fighting, I’ve only been knocked out twice. You see some fighters who have 12 losses and they’ve been knocked out a few times, and people still say that they still have it. It’s all about right now for me staying persistent, staying healthy, and more importantly, just staying confident in my abilities.”

On possibly fighting at UFC 210 in Buffalo: “I want to fight on it, but with the New York commission, I don’t know if it would be a good idea for me to put my hand in there and do it. If I can be guaranteed that I will get the clearance or something like that, then I’ll do it. But with the way the commission is, and things like that, and what happened last time, I don’t want to be flying on a plane coming in and them saying, hey you can’t fight again. That kills more than anything. When you’ve got to get your mind and your body ready, and you’re all revved up to fight for 10 weeks at a time and then they tell you that you can’t fight, it’s one of the most heartbreaking things that you’ve got to hear.”