When UFC president Dana White announced that relatively unknown
Swedish fighter Ilir Latifi was stepping into the main event at
UFC on Fuel 9 to face former Strikeforce champion Gegard
Mousasi, a general groan echoed throughout the MMA community.
Instead of watching Mousasi battle another top-10 fighter in
Alexander Gustafsson, fans are now about to be treated to one of
the best 205-pound fighters on the planet facing off with
someone most people had never heard about until White tweeted
his name earlier this week.  One person who was very familiar
with Latifi was his former training partner Rashad Evans, who
first worked with the Swedish-born fighter with his team, the
Blackzilians, a couple of years ago. Evans sparred and worked
with Latifi a lot in those early days, and says that while he's
a newcomer to the UFC, he's no walkover inside the cage.  "One
of the biggest things is that he's super strong. He's very
strong and very explosive and he's a good wrestler," Evans said
when speaking to Bleacher Report