After suffering back-to-back losses at Light Heavyweight, Rashad Evans attempted to right his ship by dropping down to Middleweight for his fight against Daniel Kelly at UFC 209 a few weeks ago. Instead, “Suga” suffered his third straight defeat after coming up short on the judges’ scorecards (video replay here).

According to Evans, one of the main problems that may have affected him was his inactivity ... even though much of it was through no fault of his own. Still, with the Kelly fight coming almost a year after his previous bout, Evans wants to be more active in 2017, eying a return to the Octagon as soon as possible to get his rhythm going.

“I was kind of disappointed in my performance, just because I didn’t perform the way I feel like I really could have. I feel like just getting in a good, competitive rhythm, being out there more than just one time a year, my next performance will be 10 times better. It’s really, really hard to compete against these guys who are competing every few months if you are not competing at all. No matter who you are, it’s just a competitive rhythm being out in the Octagon; the feel of it, feeling comfortable in the cage. When you feel comfortable in the cage, it allows you to just fight and not second guess and contemplate your next move when you are in free mode. I just need to go out there and fight as soon as possible.”

As far as what division “Suga” will compete in next, he plans on staying at 185 pounds, saying he felt good at the weight and should’ve been competing there long ago. And while he doesn’t have a fight booked yet, Evans says a match that is still floating around that interests him is one against former division champion and ex-pound-for-pound king, Anderson Silva.

Yoel Romero (and Kelvin Gastelum), though, might want Evans to take a number.

At the end of the day, Evans just wants to compete. And if the promotion has an opponent ready and willing (other than Vitor Belfort), he’d prefer to get back in the swing of things sooner rather than later.