Despite the win being a massive one for Kelly, he has yet to crack into the middleweight division’s top 15. With that being said, the win was certainly the biggest of the Olympic Judoka’s MMA career. He spoke to Submission Radio to reflect on the situation:
“This is one of the big ones,” Kelly said of his win over Rashad Evans. “This is one of the really, really big ones.”
To be honest, he didn’t hit as hard as I thought he would – which was good – and everything else was pretty much as I expected. I implemented my game plan pretty much how I wanted. I would have liked to have taken him down, but man, he was like a cat. I chopped his legs down, he’d land on his front. Then he’d be springing straight back up and I swept his feet out and he landed on his bum and he jumped straight back up. Like, he was really athletic. He was also very flexible”
In regards to what could be next for him, Kelly stated:
“(Fighting) Vitor would be awesome,” Kelly agreed, when asked about the potential mathcu. “Look, outside of the top six – well now we’ve got GSP who’s thrown a spanner in the – not a spanner, he’s made the title picture a little bit more interesting. So you got Bisping, GSP, Yoel Romero, Luke Rockhold, Jacare, Rob Whittaker, Mousasi, they’re all fighting for the title thing at the moment. Anyone down from that I’d be happy to fight, more than happy to fight.”
…
“Anderson Silva’s everyone’s dream to fight him, isn’t it?” Kelly continued when asked if he’d consider a fight with the former middleweight king. “So outside of everyone going, ‘I want to fight Conor McGregor,’ Anderson Silva would be awesome. Another former champion, same as Vitor, but Anderson would be really cool. But we’ll see what they offer me in the next week or so. As long as it’s a ranked guy, I don’t really mind.”
Middleweight fighter Dan Kelly (13-1 MMA) improved his UFC record to an impressive 6-1 yesterday in Las Vegas by scoring a split-decision victory over former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans on the UFC 209 main card.
On Saturday night, on the main card of the stacked UFC 209, former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans made his long-awaited debut in the middleweight division. His opponent in this middleweight debut was Australia’s Dan Kelly – a tough opponent, but certainly a surmountable challenge too.
A middleweight bout between former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans and veteran Dan Kelly took place on tonight’s UFC 209 main card in Las Vegas.
