UFC 192 Notebook: Back from the Brink

When Rashad Evans next crosses the threshold and steps into the Octagon, 686 days will stand between him and his most recent appearance under the bright lights of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The onetime light heavyweight titleholder will take the stage after close to a two-year layoff, as he confronts Ryan Bader in a critical 205-pound showdown at UFC 192 “Cormier vs. Gustafsson” on Saturday at the Toyota Center in Houston. The winner could conceivably find himself in line for a title shot.

Evans last competed at UFC 167 on Nov. 16, 2013, when he took apart Chael Sonnen in a little more than four minutes. He remembers it well.

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“I was picking up momentum,” Evans said during the “Countdown to UFC 192” program. “I came out there and was focused, and I felt like I was actually at another level.”

The performance resulted in his being paired with Daniel Cormier at UFC 170 the following February, and the Blackzilians mainstay seemed poised to make a serious move: “I’m starting to feel like I’m in the best shape of my life. I was where I was at from the Chael fight, and then I just added like 10 more levels. I just felt like I was that dude.”

Evans never made it to the fight. He suffered a torn ACL in training and was forced to withdraw from the match 10 days out from the event. The injury led to two reconstructive knee surgeries. Evans returns to a division largely in flux, with Cormier at the top and deposed former champion Jon Jones on the outside looking in. The layoff gave Evans a renewed sense of drive and purpose.

“Being out for two years [and] having fighting taken away from me the way it was, it’s given me a hunger that I can’t even explain,” he said. “It’s like before I was even in the UFC, when I was living in Lansing, Mich., running up and down hills talking about how I’m going to be the best fighter ever. That’s the kind of feeling it brings to me.

“I understand what a privilege it is to be able to go out there and compete,” Evans added. “I understand there’s nothing that’s guaranteed, there’s going to be nothing that’s given to me; and that’s the beauty about this opportunity. For me, it’s just a new beginning.”

Evans will have his hands full with Bader, a surging contender who has come into his own over the last two years. The Power MMA Team rep has rattled off four consecutive victories, the latest a split verdict over Alliance MMA’s Phil Davis at UFC on Fox 14 in January.

“What I sense in Ryan is that he’s just somebody that’s happy to be invited to the dance,” Evans said. “He’s going to enter the cage and he’s going to feel confident with me for about two minutes, and then I’m going to make him quit because that’s what he does; he quits.”

Statistically Speaking

“The Ultimate Fighter” Season 18 winner Julianna Pena has outpaced her two UFC opponents -- Milana Dudieva and Jessica Rakoczy -- by a staggering 70-4 count in significant strikes and 131-18 in total strikes, according to FightMetric data.

This & That

UFC 192 “Cormier vs. Gustafsson” will be the 335th event the Ultimate Fighting Championship has staged in its history ... UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier was a three-time state wrestling champion at Northside High School in Lafayette, La., where he compiled a 101-9 career record before becoming a three-time collegiate All-American at Colby Community College and Oklahoma State University ... Alexander Gustafsson has fought in eight different countries: Finland, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, Poland, England, Australia, United States and Canada ... Dagestani heavyweight Ruslan Magomedov has beaten former UFC champions Tim Sylvia and Ricco Rodriguez ... Team Alpha Male’s Joseph Benavidez sports nine submissions among his 22 professional victories: five by guillotine choke, two by triangle choke and one each by rear-naked choke and kimura ... All six of “The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America” winner Yair Rodriguez’s bouts have taken place inside his native Mexico ... Albert Tumenov has nine first-round finishes on his resume, including 38-, 63- and 99-second stoppages ... When Rose Namajunas was born on June 29, 1992, the top movie at the domestic box office was “Batman Returns” and the top song on Billboard’s Hot 100 list was Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” ... Islam Makhachev is a former combat sambo world champion and a four-time national champion in Russia ... Sage Northcutt has finished his first five opponents in a combined 18 minutes, 53 seconds ... Roufusport’s Sergio Pettis has held titles in the Resurrection Fighting Alliance and North American Fighting Championship promotions ... The three men who have defeated former Legacy Fighting Championship titleholder Derrick Lewis -- Shawn Jordan (twice), Matt Mitrione and Tony Johnson -- own a cumulative .750 winning percentage.

Inside the Venue

The Toyota Center opened on Oct. 6, 2003 at a cost of $235 million and serves as the home arena for the NBA’s Houston Rockets. UFC 192 will be the fourth time it has hosted the Ultimate Fighting Championship, joining UFC 69, UFC 136 and UFC 166.