UFC 85: Rashad Steps In For Shogun

by Michael Rome on Mar 6, 2008 12:58 AM EST in MMA News

Rashad Evans has stepped in to face Chuck Liddell in the main event of UFC 85, according to MMA Weekly:

"Ultimate Fighter" season 2 winner, Rashad Evans, has signed on to face Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell as the main event of the upcoming Ultimate Fighting Championship show in London on June 7th as confirmed to MMAWeekly.com this evening.

Liddell was slated to face former Pride champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, but the Brazilian had to drop out do to a recurring knee injury that requires surgery that will keep him out of the bout.

Evans has long been rumored to face Brazilian light heavyweight Thiago Silva as a part of the May 24 card featuring B.J. Penn vs. Sean Sherk as the main event. Now Evans will step in to face Liddell.

I think this is a pretty good pick. In terms of marketability, it is actually probably a bigger fight than the original for casual fans, though less so for hardcore fans. It is by far the biggest fight of Rashad's career, a win shoots him way up the ranks and into near title contention. However, his style is tailor-made for Liddell, and he has an uphill battle.

It is also rumored that UFC is going to be adding a title match to this card. Antonio Nogueira could fight on this, as could Anderson Silva, with the former being more likely. The show is still not scheduled as a PPV event. MMA Junkie reported it would be on Spike TV as a free show. The goal here may be to put Liddell on free TV to do a huge rating and show the broadcast networks what they can deliver.

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