Rashad Evans moves to middleweight, wants to fight in New York but has no official opponent

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans will be making a drop in weight class for his next UFC bout.

Evans, who built an impressive career in the UFC's 205-pound division, seizing light heavyweight gold and competing against the best fighters in the world for many years, announced his drop to middleweight on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour. The 36-year-old fighter also clarified previous reports that stated he'll be fighting Tim Kennedy at UFC 205 in November.

"I can tell you I'm working towards that in making my cut down to middleweight," Evans told Ariel Helwani. "As far as the opponent, nothing has been set in stone. There has been talks about a fight with Tim Kennedy, but other fights too as well, but nothing has been signed yet. I had Ali [Evans' manager] with Joe Silva trying to set something up but nothing has been finalized yet."

At 36 years of age, dropping 20 extra pounds to make the middleweight limit is something difficult to do, but being on a two-fight losing streak and 2-4 in his past six trips to the octagon, Evans says he needs a fresh start to his career.

"Well, you know, the thing about it is the fact that it is a tough cut but at some point I feel like I need just to kind of start over again, kind of get something fresh, you know. And 185 is weight class that I've always thought about going but really never put the time and the discipline to make it happen and, you know, coming off two fights losing, I just want to find the way to bring some life back to wanting to compete again I feel like dropping to 185 is the best choice."

Even though Evans has no official opponent or date for his next fight, 'Suga' wants to be part of history and says fighting in his native state of New York would be a perfect opportunity to get back in the wining column.

"It is absolutely perfect," Evans said. "I couldn't write anything better myself to be able to hopefully have an opportunity to compete in this card, to be a part of what this card means for the history of mixed martial arts, it's just, it really means everything to me, and it's a big opportunity, a big chance for me to get back on track and to make a statement, you know, it's something that I look to do. If I get a chance to be on this card, I'm going to go out there and show off, I'm going to do my thing, and I'm going to enjoy doing it, you know what I'm saying. This is what its about. It's just about being a part of history. No matter what happens in my life, I'll live forever in this moment, I'll be immortalized in this moment, being the fact that I can say that I competed in the first card at Madison Square Garden, UFC, mixed martial arts, and that for me it's something that nobody can ever take away. I'll just be happy I could be a part of that."