{"id":272323,"date":"2018-03-12T09:50:37","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T16:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=272323"},"modified":"2018-03-12T09:50:37","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T16:50:37","slug":"rashad-evans-returns-to-light-heavyweight-division-at-ufc-225","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/rashad-evans-returns-to-light-heavyweight-division-at-ufc-225\/","title":{"rendered":"Rashad Evans returns to light heavyweight division at UFC 225"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After an unsuccessful, two-fight run in the UFC middleweight division, former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans will return to the light heavyweight division. Though the former champ was <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-bisping\/breaking-big-potential-rematch-works-michael-bispings-retirement\/\">briefly linked<\/a> to a showdown with former UFC middleweight champ Michael Bisping, he will instead welcome former middleweight Anthony Smith to the light heavyweight division at UFC 225, on June 9 in Chicago. This bout was first reported by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/mma\/story\/_\/id\/22733584\/rashad-evans-take-anthony-smith-ufc-225\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ESPN&#8217;s Brett Okamoto<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In his two fights in the UFC middleweight division, Evans lost controversial split decisions to Sam Alvey and Dan Kelly. His two next most recent bouts, which occurred at light heavyweight, also resulted in losses, as he was knocked out by Glover Teixeira and decisioned by current Bellator champ Ryan Bader. Evans&#8217;s last win occurred in November of 2013, when he defeated current Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix competitor Chael Sonnen by first-round TKO. Evans is 19-7-1 overall.<\/p>\n<p>Smith, meanwhile, is set to debut in the light heavyweight division after an action-packed TKO loss to rising middleweight contender Thiago Santos. This loss was preceded by consecutive (T)KO wins over Hector Lombard, Andrew Sanchez, and Elvis Mutapcic, a loss to Cezar &#8220;Mutante&#8221; Ferreira and a decision win over Leonardo Augusto Guimar\u00e3es in his UFC debut. Smith is 28-13 in sum.<\/p>\n<p>UFC 225 is expected to be headlined by a middleweight title rematch between champion Robert Whittaker, and challenger Yoel Romero, as first reported by <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc-225\/yoel-romero-vs-robert-whittaker-2-set-for-ufc-225-in-chicago\/\">BJPenn.com&#8217;s own Chris Taylor<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The card will also feature a heavyweight title between Alistair Overeem and Curtis Blaydes, as <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/alistair-overeem\/report-alistair-overeem-vs-curtis-blaydes-works-ufc-225\/\">first reported by BJPenn.com&#8217;s Tom Taylor<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Other features of the card announced so far include a flyweight bout between former title challenger Joseph Benavidez and Sergio Pettis, and a strawweight bout between former champion Carla Esparza, and former title challenger Claudia Gadelha.<\/p>\n<p>How do you think Rashad Evans will perform in his return to the light heavyweight division?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 3\/12\/2018.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After an unsuccessful, two-fight run in the UFC middleweight division, former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans will return to the light heavyweight division. Though the former champ was briefly linked to a showdown with former UFC middleweight champ Michael Bisping, he will instead welcome former middleweight Anthony Smith to the light heavyweight division at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":272324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10226],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rashad Evans returns to light heavyweight division at UFC 225 | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/rashad-evans-returns-to-light-heavyweight-division-at-ufc-225\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rashad Evans returns to light heavyweight division at UFC 225 | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After an unsuccessful, two-fight run in the UFC middleweight division, former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans will return to the light heavyweight division. Though the former champ was briefly linked to a showdown with former UFC middleweight champ Michael Bisping, he will instead welcome former middleweight Anthony Smith to the light heavyweight division at [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/rashad-evans-returns-to-light-heavyweight-division-at-ufc-225\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-12T16:50:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rashad-Evans.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/rashad-evans-returns-to-light-heavyweight-division-at-ufc-225\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/rashad-evans-returns-to-light-heavyweight-division-at-ufc-225\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Rashad Evans returns to light heavyweight division at UFC 225\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-12T16:50:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-12T16:50:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/rashad-evans-returns-to-light-heavyweight-division-at-ufc-225\/\"},\"wordCount\":328,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Rashad Evans\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/rashad-evans-returns-to-light-heavyweight-division-at-ufc-225\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/rashad-evans-returns-to-light-heavyweight-division-at-ufc-225\/\",\"name\":\"Rashad Evans returns to light heavyweight division at UFC 225 | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-12T16:50:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-12T16:50:37+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/rashad-evans-returns-to-light-heavyweight-division-at-ufc-225\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/rashad-evans-returns-to-light-heavyweight-division-at-ufc-225\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/rashad-evans-returns-to-light-heavyweight-division-at-ufc-225\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Rashad Evans\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Rashad Evans returns to light heavyweight division at UFC 225\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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