Posted by 
Courtesy of mmaweekly.com
At 10-0 (with one no contest), Billy Evangelista has repeatedly risen to every challenge Strikeforce has given him.
From undercard status to headlining the Challengers Series events, Evangelista’s rise has been steady and it now appears he’s ready to step up to the next level.
With his win earlier this month over the always tough Jorge Gurgel, Evangelista proved he could beat a veteran fighter, even under circumstances that had him decidedly less than 100-percent.
“As far as my performance, I wasn’t really conditioned for the fight,” Evangelista admitted to MMAWeekly.com. “I pulled my groin about a month before and I was trying to heal up, but I didn’t even get a chance to do a lot of exercise, but regardless I think I did well for the fight that I did.”
According to Evangelista, he decided to fight with the injury because he didn’t want to let down his hometown crowd.
“I wasn’t really sure (if I was going to fight),” said Evangelista. “I felt like everything was going to be geared up, people were expecting me to fight, all the flyers were up, all the promotion had happened, and I felt like I just couldn’t back out.
“I was going to train as hard as I could with what I got and just go in there and do my best.”
Evangelista’s best allowed him to get a decision victory over Gurgel, and put him on the cusp of being one of Strikeforce’s premier title contenders.
As for when he will return to action, Evangelist isn’t sure, as an injury sustained in the fight with Gurgel, in addition to his pulled groin, has him wanting to fight a little later than originally intended.
“Before this fight (Strikeforce) had said January,” stated Evangelista. “Considering I’ve got this cut over my right eye, I really don’t know. It could be January or another date.
“I would love to fight in February or March. It would be a great time to heal up and enjoy my small vacation and then pretty much get back in gym and start getting ready for my next fight.”
With Strikeforce’s growth to hit an all time high in 2010, Evangelista could become a major player in the lightweight division in relatively short order, which is a right he has earned with continued quality wins and effort.
“I want to say thank you to Oak Grove Technologies, Taking Care of Business, ChinChek, Full Tilt Poker, Team Buhawe, and everybody who went to the fight in Fresno and supported me, you’re great, I love you all,” he said in closing.
“To everybody else, keep your eyes out for me next year. I’ll keep doing my best and hopefully we can get into some of those bigger challenges. I’ll take it as it comes, and whenever it comes I’m definitely going to try to win however I can.”
