Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight king Rashad Evans made his long-awaited middleweight debut last night (Sat., Mar. 4, 2017) at UFC 209 live on pay-per-view (PPV) from inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, opposite Australian journeyman Dan Kelly. It turned out to be one of the more entertaining bouts of the evening.
Evans came out of the gate playing the outside and relying on his speed to land uppercuts moving forward, but Kelly responded with crisp punches, dirty boxing inside, elbows and good clinch work along the cage. While Evans looked good, the cut down to 185 pounds may have played a factor in his conditioning because he looked a little depleted mid-way through the second frame. “Suga” began to rely on kicks to open up his standup, but Kelly kept the pressure on by landing countless uppercuts inside. The two stood and exchanged power shots to end the final frame, but it was Kelly who did enough on the scorecards to earn the split-decision win.
The full fight video highlights can be seen above courtesy of UFC.
With this win, Kelly extends his current win streak to four. This is a quality victory over a well-known UFC veteran, despite it being the first fight at middleweight for Evans. Kelly is 39 years of age, but he has proven over the past few years that he’s one of the toughest outs in the division.
For complete UFC 209 results and coverage click here.
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