Rashad Evans eyes March UFC return against Thales Leites, blames radiologist for costing him UFC 205 fight

It’s been a rough couple of months for former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans, who was bounced from his middleweight debut at UFC 205 on Nov. 12, 2016, which was to be against Tim Kennedy inside Madison Square Garden in New York due to irregularities with an MRI scan of his brain.

Soon thereafter, the bout was re-booked to go down at UFC 206 a few weeks later, but Ontario Athletic Commission (OAC) refused to license him for the same reason.

Evans, however, adamantly claimed he was 100-percent healthy. And during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, "Suga" spoke about the fight cancellations, declaring that it was all a misunderstanding due to a radiologist who failed to do his due diligence when reading his tests.

"I’m going to fight. What happened in New York was a misunderstanding with the brain MRI thing. The radiologist read the same radiology exam, and then gave two different assessments of it," said Evans.

"For 2013 he said it was fine and nothing wrong with it, then for 2016 he was looking at the same identical image and then he said I had new changes; which to he commission was like if you have changes to your brain is injured then you can’t compete. Upon further review after having everything tested and looked at, it was pretty clear what happened, and it was just a radiologist not doing his due diligence. At the end of the day it cost me, it is what it is and I was able to put it behind me and move forward. "

Rashad is comfortable in saying that everything has now been cleared up and he is ready to get back into the Octagon, as he eyes a return to action in March or April.

Ideally, he would’ve liked to face Anderson Silva, but "The Spider" has been booked to face off against Derek Brunson at the upcoming UFC 208 event on Feb. 11, 2017 in Brooklyn, New York.

Evans is currently riding a two-fight losing streak, suffering back-to-back losses to Ryan Bader and Glover Teixiera, prompting a move down to 185 pounds. That said, "Suga" is open to any and all challenges, including a showdown against Thales Leites.

Care to throw other suggestions his way?