Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Rashad Evans suffered a first round knockout loss to Anthony Smith at UFC 225.
UFC President Dana White spoke with the former champion after the bout and says Evans is going to be retiring.
?When he lost, I had him come back to my room,? White said at the UFC 225 post-fight press conference. ?We hung out and talked, and yeah, it?s sad. Rashad was on season two of The Ultimate Fighter, so he was around through the whole building of this company. We all get old, man, and this is a young man?s sport. But if you look at what he [did], he won The Ultimate Fighter, he became a world champion, he [built] this team where he was like the guy and built all these young up-and-coming fighters. He?s been in big, huge fights. He?s been on the ride with us the whole way and he got to close it out in his hometown of Chicago, so not a bad run. Yeah, he did (say he was retiring). Yeah. Again, I don?t want to stomp on his ? if he was going to retire or whatever, I don?t want to steal the thunder from him. And obviously after a fight like that, he?s super emotional too. So yeah, I hope he does.?
Evans did issue the following statement on the loss via Instagram:
However, nowhere in the Instgram post by Evans does the former light heavyweight champion state that he is going to retire.
If the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion is indeed retiring, it ends one of the greatest success stories to ever come out of the UFC Ultimate Fighter. Evans was the heavyweight winner of the UFC Ultimate Fighter 2 and would defeat TUF 1 Champion Forrest Griffin to capture the UFC Light Heavyweight Title at UFC 92. Evans will potentially be ending his career on a four fight losing streak, with the fighters last victory coming against Chael Sonnen at UFC 167 in November of 2013.