Many people have said that UFC 196 hurt Dana White and the UFC because the two biggest fighters in the event lost. Realistically though, that even has garnered so much buzz for the UFC and has shown that anything can happen in the octagon so those two surprising outcomes will likely help long-term.
One of the next events for the UFC has scheduled is UFC on Fox 19 at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla., on April 16. The co-headliner of the event was scheduled to be between light heavyweights Rashad Evans and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua but that will not happen anymore. Rua was forced to pull out of the fight and will be replaced by Glover Teixeira.
"Shogun" has lost five of his last nine fights and has been hearing a lot of speculation about potential retirement. The 34-year-old lightweight though, won his last fight via unanimous decision against Antonio Nogueira at UFC 190 and underwent shoulder surgery recently to prepare for this fight. A knee injury though, forced him to pull out of this one.
Rua will be replaced by seventh-ranked light heavyweight Glover Teixeira. Rua is actually not ranked right now so the eighth-ranked Evans will be facing a tougher opponent in Teixeira. The 36-year-old won both of his fights last year, one by submission and one by TKO, and will come into this one with a lot of momentum.
Evans, meanwhile, is coming off a loss to Ryan Bader at UFC 192 when the judges ruled in Bader's favor unanimously. Before losing to Bader though, Evans had won two straight fights and the 36-year-old will be looking to get back on track.
This is not the first time an Evans vs. "Shogun" fight has been called off due to injury. Four years ago, Evans and Rua were scheduled to meet at UFC 128 when Rua was the light heavyweight champion but Evans had to pull out due to a knee injury. Jon Jones replaced Evans in the fight and ended up taking the title from Rua. Since then Jones hasn't lost and he even defended that title against Evans, among many others.
Seeing 'Shogun' vs. Evans would have been nice even though they are both past their prime days but now it looks like we may never see that fight. In its place though we might actually be privileged to a better fight as Teixeira has been better recently and will probably pose a much greater threat to Evans.
