UFC's Rashad Evans Targeted By Thiago Silva, Retired "Rampage" Jackson

Fighters.com’s third-ranked light heavyweight and former UFC champ “Sugar” Rashad Evans (13-1-1) has become the target of UFC title contender Thiago Silva (15-1) and recently retired former UFC champ “Rampage” Quinton Jackson (28-7).

After Jackson announced his retirement from fighting Tuesday, Silva stepped up to take the challenge in an interview with Tatame Saturday.  Silva said, “If doesn’t happens the fight between Rashad and Rampage, that would be good for me.  I want to fight with top athletes and I’m ready.  Alex [Davis] is managing the stuff, trying to make this fight happen.”

Silva was responding to an interview Evans gave to AOL FanHouse in which Evans  said, “Thiago Silva is a good fighter.  I’d like to fight him and I think he wants to fight me.  I think I match up really well with Thiago Silva.  He’s a great striker, and I love his focus.  He’s going to be a challenge, and that’s the kind of fight I want”.

In agreement with Evans, Silva added, “It would be a show, a very movement fight.  We’re two aggressive fighters, it’ll be a good fight, the game matches.  I want to fight with the bests and show my work to be close to a title shot.

But, Evans’s previouslyly scheduled foe, “Rampage” Jackson, hasn’t given up on a fight with Evans even after retiring from professional fighting.  Jackson responded to Evans’s challenge to punch Jackson for free at MMA Bay, “Now he’s talking all hard, like he’s gonna hit me in the face?  All he’s doing is really pissing me off more and more.  I will go to Rashad’s house, knock on his door, drag his ugly ass out into the yard, let him play with his nipples first and knock him the fuck out.

“Like Rashad says, we’ll do the fight for free.  I want him to put his money where his mouth is so I can knock his teeth out and give him some change, the boy needs a change, his mouth is too big but he ain’t nothing.  The boy ain’t fought the people I’ve fought, he ain’t got the experience I’ve got.  He’s barking up the wrong tree so he’s gonna get pissed on for real.

Jackson added, “Rashad’s just real cocky and he wants to talk about punching me in the face for free?  I would love to see that, I would love to see that.  Wait till you guys see The Ultimate Fighter show, wait for all the episodes to come out and all the stuff that Rashad talks.  We all know, everybody knows, if I fought Rashad how he would do.  He would run around and play with his nipples like he does everybody else.  The boy don’t wanna fight me, he don’t wanna see me.  He knows that but he’s got a big mouth, he’s real cocky and he’s writing cheques that his ass can’t cash!

“He’s probably happy as hell that I took this movie instead of whoopin’ his ass and he’s trying to play it up like he’s not.  That’s all he is, he’s all talk. I did a show with the guy for six weeks.  I know what he is.  He’s all talk, it’s all show.  If there wasn’t cameras or stuff around or nobody to grab his ass he wouldn’t do half the things that he did.”