Evans ready to fight Machida

UFC light-heavyweight champion Rashad Evans is ready to defend his belt against Lyoto Machida at UFC 98.

Machida has been given the opportunity to fight the champions, as Rampage Jackson is out with injuries.

Jackson is expected to get a title shot against the winner of the Evans-Machida fight.

Both Evans and Machida are undefeated in their professional mixed martial arts careers.

Evans told Sherdog: “The kid’s been phenomenal. He’s been better than phenomenal. He’s been looking better every fight.

“But that’s the fight business. That’s the fun part — the fact that you go in there with an opponent who sometimes seems insurmountable but then you figure it out and that makes the victory that much sweeter.

“With that said, there may be some kinks in Lyoto’s armour that I have yet to see that I can exploit when I look at the tapes more closely.

“He’s been looking slicker than I don’t know what, but everybody has a weakness even if you do look slick as oil. Everyone has a weakness.”

Evans has also commented on his face-off with Jackson at UFC 96.

He added: “I didn’t expect any of that, man. I was just going to do the face-off and whatnot but then he started talking trash.

“I wasn’t even in the mood to play or joke around, I just saw one of my best friends lose a fight which I had him winning until the last 10 seconds.

“I saw the hurt in Keith Jardine’s eyes and he was so upset and disappointed, I felt bad for him.

“But then this dude started bumping his gums at me. To be honest, I really wanted to punch him in his face, but I knew that wasn’t the right time to do that so I just tried to stay as composed as possible because I don’t like to talk trash.

“Whenever I got into a street fight I never talked — I just hit. I never liked to be in someone’s face that close just talking.”

Tags: Keith Jardine, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, UFC