As we mentioned earlier, James Irvin (14-4) will replace an injured Chuck Liddell and tangle with Rashad Evans (11-0-1) in a light heavyweight bout at UFC 85 at the O2 Arena in London, England, on June 7.
Liddell suffered a torn hamstring and would be unfit in time for the scheduled main event. He was originally booked to scrap with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua; however, he too was injured during training and was replaced by “Sugar.”
Irvin was in action just this month … although his fight with Houston Alexander at UFC Fight Night 13 didn’t last too long. In fact, “The Sandman” registered the fasted knockout in UFC history, finishing the “Nebraskan Assassin” in only eight seconds.
It was a big win for Irvin who battled severe injuries and freak incidents inside the cage throughout his fight campaign in 2007.
Evans — season two heavyweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) — is still undefeated since his stint on the mixed martial arts reality series. Stephan Bonnar, Jason Lambert and Michael Bisping are just a few of his notable wins.
He fought former light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz to a disappointing draw at UFC 73: “Stacked” in July 2007. And a win — or a solid performance — against a highly regarded fighter such as Liddell would have landed him on the short list of top 205-pound title contenders.
Evans will have to now go through Irvin first.
To check out the latest UFC 85 card, which includes a possible last-minute main event between Michael Bisping and Chris Leben, click here.
39 Comments »
micheal bisping and chris leben…that should be an awesome fight…what about patrick cote!!…
Cote maybe will fight the winner of this match up i hope. leben / bisping are great match up for Cote i don’t care who wins they’re all are great fighters.
Cote needs to beat Ricardo Big Dog Almeida before he gets the winner of anybody. A Cote loss can earn him a fight with the likes of Alan Belcher.
It’s a good match up, but I think it is a bad fight for Rashad. He was scheduled to fight Chuck Liddell. While I’m one of the few that liked his chances in that fight, a loss to Chuck would not hurt him in the rankings because the majority expects him to lose.
Irvin on the other hand, doesn’t have a quarter of Lidell’s star power. If he loses it’s a much harder loss than to someone like Chuck, and if he wins, well then big deal, he was supposed to anyway.
I know they want to fix this card, but they should have just figured something else out and righted the original ship like this. Chuck was gonna fight Shogun, but Shogun got injured, now they’re both hurt so let them recover and re book the fight. Rashad was gonna fight Thiago Silva. Now Silva is fighting some unknown guy. Scratch that fight and put Thiago not Irvin in the Rashad fight. That’s how I would have handled it.
On a side note, I think the Quarry Bisping match up would have been better than Bisping Leben.
I agree that its basically a loose/loose situation for Rashad. Rving/Rashad and Bisping/Leben will both be very entertaining fight but the card still lacks the presence of a big star needed to sell out an event. The UFC has been loosing $ in England, now without a true star in the main event, I expect this event to be a financial bust as well.
They pretty much will have to air it Free on SWpike because not a lot of casual fans will order this event if its on pay per view.
I say take Soko or tiago off the UFC card and have one of them face Rashad because as exciting as irving is, its really not fair to rashad who is climbing the rankings. A win over the sandman will do nothing to advance his career.
This fight is packed with interesting match ups, all of which will be better than any fight on last weekends UFC 83 card, but There are no fights on this card worthy to headline a pay per view….its going to have to be on SPIKE TV! I feel bad for the british fans who have already purchased tickets thinking they were going to get to see Liddell Fight Live!
i hope rashad smashes james
Now this card will really suck, just like any card with Rashad. I bet Rashad comes out strong with his lay and pray style and boars Irvin into submission. 15 mins of watching Rashad shoot and take down then do nothing on the ground except trying to pin his opponent. Lets all hope that Irvin catches him with a Superman punch and finishes this in 8 secs.
I hope they add Bisping vs. Leben to save this card.
This is gutting, £200 and all we’ll see for a main event is Bisping vs Leben, what a joke. Cheers Dana. ‘The UFC always delivers’, yeah, if you’re ordering a rubbish card
I know, got my tickets just days ago via ebay when Chuck was headling, gutting.
Thing is its no-ones fault really just bad luck and bad timing. It doesn’t help that 84 has so many of the top draw fighters involved.
I’m hoping that i’m gonna log on over the next couple of days and there is a major fight announced. Hendo vs Franklin or Silva vs Okami or what the hell… Randy vs Nog!
I can hope.
I hope James Irvin smashes Rashad Evans and Wanderlei Silva fucks up Keith Jardine so that maybe down tha line they can set up a Irvin vs Silva fight, that would be a war right there, as long as Irvin doesn’t have a freak injury during tha fight. Alot of people be hatin on Irvin, but if he can put wins off vs Evans and Silva and one already vs Alexander, he could be a serious contender in tha LHW Division.
Are you related to Irvin?
sweet, this is all good, i hope evans doesn’t just continually try to take irvin down for 15 mins like he did with bisping. i hope they just fight in a war and give the crowd what hey want to see. lay and pray is damn boring..
You can pretty much count on the bob and weave head movement, to take-down on Rashad’s part.. I don’t think he will try and trade with Irvin for long, we all saw the knockout power Irvin has.
WTF are you talking about, have you not seen all of Rashad’s fights including the ones on TUF. He punished everyone!!!! I really don’t think he wants to trade shot with Rashad. It won’t be a repeat of Alexander believe that!!
I hope James Irvin smashes Rashad Evans and Wanderlei Silva smashes Keith Jardine too, so that maybe down tha line they can set up a Irvin vs Silva fight. So if Irvin could pull off those three victories vs Alexander, Evans, & Silva without any freak injuries happenin to him that would show that he ain’t no joke in tha LHW Division and everyone can quit hatin on him.
Think you’re getting a bit excited there mate! He’s only just beat Alexander and you’re talking about him reeling off a win against Wanderlei Silva! Relax pal, one fight at a time and all that malarky.
Yea ur right i am gettin a lil bit too excited, but ur wrong tho, Irvin hasn’t just beat Alexander, i’m pretty sure u should know he has knockout wins over Hector Ramirez, Former WEC LHW Champ Doug Marshall, a flying knee KO of Terry Martin, and even a knockout win over Scott Smith whos gonna be fighting in May for Robbie Lawler’s EliteXC MiddleWeight belt and all those guyz aren’t no push overs either. Tha reason why i say he should fight Wanderlei Silva if he pulls off a win vs Evans is cause i heard him talkin on this radio show tha other day saying that would be a dream come true if Joe Silva made that fight happen and besides i think he has a good chance if that fight were to go down as long as he doesn’t get some freak injury. I’m seriously sick of people talkin shit bout Irvin to be honest, he has so much potential to be a big name if he can pull off some more wins over some other big names thatz all i’m saying, but like u said lets see how everything pans out & take it one fight at a time.
You need to chillout a little dude. You made a similar comment at 13:06. I think you definately are related to Irvin. Your not his dad are you?
hope he does to rashad what he did to martin when martin shot! 7 sec knockout flying knee this time
wow.. This is a terrible fight. Irvin will get mauled by Evans strength and wrestling ability. But is this the best they can do? I guess Hendo is staying at 185 then? This card better be free, there is no way I will buy this what so ever.
agree completely. evans vs irvin. who cares?
I feel like a right mug paying £200 for this c list event now!
I actually think Rashad is catching a break not having to face Liddell. Rashad has no business trying to strike with either Liddell or Irvin, but he can out-wrestle Irvin. Chuck would stuff all Rashad’s takedown attempts and pound on him.
what about anthony johnson? that guy can throw! “man down! man down!”
Rashad would probably neutralize him with his 35-pound weight advantage.
i’m not recommending matching him up with Rashad who is already booked with Irvin. i just think he’d be a good addition to this weak card.
Come on man he fights at 170!! not 205
Why not put silva vs rashad since he beat irvin? and maybe kenflo vs huerta too?
I think that this is a big blow to Rashad even though it would have been a tough night against Chuck I think it was trully a win win situation for him. As well I think he could have come up with a game plan to beat Chuck he has great training partners and an amazing trainer to back him up. With the Irvin fight I really don’t think Irvin has a huge chance Rashad is a much better wrestler than the Sandman and Rashad’s standup is very good so a quick knockout isn’t likely either. I see Rashad putting Irvin on the ground all three rounds for a decision win. The Leben fight is a good one however it is too bad I was hoping the UFC would have done something dramatic and put Anderson Silva in with Okami as the main event.
bisbing v franklin would be good main event.
This better be free or theres no way in hell Im buying this. If it is a ppv, its going to be the most unsuccessful one to date. They will probably be forced to put it on spike.
Ahahaha … The Sandman? For real? I feel bad for all my English peoples that already bought tix. Rashad Evans is not the most exciting fighter either. Putting Bisping on would be the only way to salvage this PPV for the English.
Good luck to the UFC trying to put together an exciting montage for the main card.
I feel bad for all the peeps that paid good money ahead of time to see this card. I agree that the UFC could’ve found someone better than Irvin to face Rashad….oh well
Easy win for Irvin 1st or 2nd round KO/TKO, unless some stupid bullshit happens like in thiago fight.
Why not Hendo vs. Rashad? Hendo has headlining starpower and would be a better replacement. A couple of wrestlers balancing out ground skills so they slug it out on the feet to settle it.
Franklin and Bisping both had easy nights. Bisping I know would be down to fight at home. Book that to take over as the headliner if it is gonna be a non-title fight. A fight with Leben would be entertaining be not at the top of the card.
Bisping-Franklin as a main event. Would this entice anyone a little more?
hey Rashad watch out for the superman punch
james sucks hope he gets flatten ko baby
This should be an excieting fight but, I dont think this will help Evans at all(if he wins)…But if Ervin wins he jumps up the ladder..
I wonder what the main event will be..I hope it gets replaced with a title fight….Okami/Silva could be used for the main event..Both fighters are in good health, and will have plenty of time to prepare…..PPV’s should always have a title fight,,(imo)