Evans vs. Kelly

This is the official discussion thread for Evans vs. Kelly. Let's see what you've got.

OldNick, 

On paper, Salmon was. Sonnen has much more talent but is so on and off.

Having Rashad fight someone who was coming off three straight wins while he was coming off two losses in a row, most recently his worst loss ever, was hardly fair.

The fact that Rashad's camp had gone out of business earlier this year didn't help either.

With these issues in mind, Hector Lombard would be the ideal next opponent for Rashad: Not only has Lombard also lost three in a row, but the last one was to Johny Hendricks, who had himself lost three in a row going into that fight, and before that to Hendo, who Rashad has beaten, but Lombard and Rashad have just fought two weeks apart, so their schedules match up perfectly.  Also, at 5'9", Lombard would be Rashad's smallest opponent ever (and Rashad has finished both of the opponents under 6'0" he has faced in the UFC - Jason Lambert and Sean Salmon).

Rashad must also latch on with a stable camp.  If he does, he beats Lombard easily - but if he doesn't win, he gets cut.  (Lombard should also be cut if he loses).

* Edited at 03.05.2017, 12:39 PM ET *

Rashad should retire. Sure, Kelly's on a winning streak but he's not exactly the most athletic guy out there or very threatening in the standup. Rashad has too much going on to need to fight and this drop to middleweight would have been better about 5 years ago. He would get annihilated by the top guys at middleweight.

I think Shad's on the "Chuck Liddell quest" to retire off a win. Not a great place to be in if even when he's more or less handed the most winnable fight possible and he loses.

He basically needs to be given the guy with the worst TDD in one of his two divisions at this point so he can get an ugly win and stop doing this to himself.