Rashad Evans out of UFC 205 bout with Tim Kennedy due to medical issue
Rashad Evans discusses Kamaru Usman’s split from Sanford MMA: “He’s not part of that team anymore, to be honest”
The biggest storyline heading into this weekend’s UFC 258 main event welterweight title fight between champion Kamaru Usman and challenger Gilbert Burns is that they are former teammates out of Sanford MMA in Florida. Before they were originally scheduled to fight last July, Usman moved away from Sanford MMA and joined coach Trevor Wittman and Elevation Fight Team in Colorado. Former UFC champion Rashad Evans says Kamaru Usman has not been a part of the Sanford MMA team for quite some time already.
This week while appearing on ‘MMA Tonight’ on Sirius XM’s Fight Nation, Evans opened up about Usman’s departure from the Sanford MMA team and said that Usman has actually been off the team for a while now, and the Sanford MMA team is rooting for Gilbert Burns in the title fight.
🎙️ "Kamaru [Usman] is not part of that team anymore, to be honest." @SugaRashadEvans says Kamaru Usman left the gym even before the matchup with Gilbert Burns at #UFC258. 👊@RJcliffordMMA @lionheartasmith pic.twitter.com/15Lacetve0
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) February 10, 2021
“Honestly speaking, before this happened it was kind of like they were already going on different paths as far as like Kamaru was already looking at training at other places. I think when it comes down to it, the move has already been made as far as the team is concerned. The team, they want a champion and they felt like they didn’t know whether they were going to have Kamaru so now they got Gilbert.”
Rashad Evans says although Usman has split from Sanford MMA team he believes there are former teammates who will still have a connection with the current champion, but they want Gilbert Burns to become the new welterweight champion.
“I think for the most part people, they still feel connected to Kamaru but I feel like maybe the team, it’s just kind of like they want their teammate Gilbert to win. He’s [Usman] not part of the team anymore to be honest.”
Earlier this week, Burns met with the media and said Usman knows that he can submit him in their fight, and ESPN’s Marc Raimondi chronciled the teammate story of both fighters. Rashad Evans knows a thing or two about fighting a former teammate as he was involved in the highly-publicized beef between himself and former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones when the two were teammates at JacksonWink MMA, Jones would defeat Evans at UFC 145 in 2012.
