UFC 92 The Ultimate Betting Guide Griffin vs Evans

When Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans meet for the light heavyweight title at UFC 92, it will be a battle of the underdogs. Neither fighter has the flashy personality or style of guys like Rampage Jackson or Chuck Liddell (although both are funny guys), and both are forever linked to and at times discredited by their time spent on The Ultimate Fighter.

Many fans still think (for unknown reasons) that fighters from that TV show are not quite on the same level as their peers in the UFC. But both have proven to be versatile, smart fighters with the ability to overcome the odds and defeat elite competition.

This is one of those fights where most people don’t quite have an idea of how it’s going to play out, so they revert to picking the favorite, in this case the reigning champion, Forrest Griffin, almost by default.

Griffin is a favorite at-130 compared to -110 for Evans in this fight, and he deserves it, but it still seems like Evans still isn’t getting the respect he deserves. To go 7-0-1 in a league as good as the UFC and in a division as stacked as light heavyweight means you are a top-notch fighter, no questions asked.

Many fans feel that Griffin has a big advantage because of his reach, but Liddell had the same advantage at UFC 88 and we all know how that turned out. Evans used his superior speed and his most underrated ability, his smarts, to find an opening and drop a bomb on Liddell while his guard was down.

Evans is used to fighting bigger guys, as he won season two of The Ultimate Fighter while fighting at heavyweight. He is much quicker than Forrest, has better wrestling, and he also is more powerful and more likely to win via knockout.

The big question mark for Evans is his jiu-jitsu, an area where Griffin has proven to be formidable over the years with his length, toughness, and flexibility. Griffin could also win by decision if he plays it safe and tries to jabs to win on the scorecard, but that will be hard against Evans, who is a technically sound boxer.

Evans boasted that he’d like to start the fight in the middle of the octagon on his back to finally show off his jiu-jitsu skills, but it’s hard to tell if he’s being truthful or if that’s just a psychological ploy to make Griffin think he’s better on the ground than he actually is.

At any rate, Evans is still vastly underrated but most fans and it’s definitely worth betting a few bucks on him because of his ability to finish a fight with one punch or one kick.Evans still feels like he has a lot to prove going into this fight as well. Evans has a similar fight game to Rampage Jackson with his quick hands, strength, and wrestling ability, and on top of that, he’s probably smarter fighter than Jackson who won’t allow Griffin to pick away at him with leg kicks like he did to Jackson.

While Griffin has the height advantage and a little more experience, UFC 92 is shaping up to be the night UFC fans finally realize just how good Rashad Evans truly is and how much he has evolved as a fighter.