RASHAD EVANS: FOLLOWING THE BLUEPRINT
Light heavyweight contender Rashad Evans never intended to take Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell to the ground. He’d seen Liddell destroy wrestlers who wanted to take him down; counterpunch foes who chased him down.
“You can’t be trying to take him down the whole time because he will knock you out,” Evans said.
Of course, he didn’t tell anybody this, particularly the media, whom he steadfastly avoided in preparation for the fight. In a pre-fight conference call for UFC 88, he brought out his acting chops and left a pretty strong impression that he’d shoot for a takedown, and keep Liddell guessing about where the fight would go. But that was the furthest thing from his mind.
“Yeah, it was head games,” he confirmed in an exclusive interview with MMAWeekly.com. “I wasn’t trying to take Chuck down. I mean, if I would have gotten him tired enough then I was going to try to take him down, but I didn’t have any intention of taking Chuck down. Matter of fact, I think I only did one takedown attempt in practice.”
Evans relied heavily on close friend and training partner Keith Jardine for advice. At UFC 76, Jardine had stood with Liddell and beat him at his vaunted striking game. Many pundits called it an off night for the former champ, but Evans knew better. Liddell’s looping, power punch focus would leave cracks in his defense. Whatever the consequences, Evans knew he could stand with The Iceman.
“The best way to come at Chuck is you’ve got to come at Chuck,” he said. “You can’t be trying to take him down the whole time because he will knock you out, and I was like ‘if I’m going to lose this fight, I’m going to lose it on my feet, and I’m willing to get knocked out for it.’”
Evans hardly came straight at Liddell, preferring a game of feint and dodge as his foe was forced to come forward. Liddell cut the cage off, but Evans always found a way out. By the end of the first, he could tell his head games had worked.
“He was pissed,” he said. “He was highly pissed, man. He threw that kick at the end of that round, almost took my head off. I was like, ok, I got him now.”
Evans had waited patiently to assert himself throughout the first round. In the second, however, he returned fire when Liddell cornered him, connecting with a counter left hook in the midst of Liddell’s arcing punches.
Liddell disengaged, realizing Evans could push back, though it didn’t stop him from trying to cut off the cage again. By this time, Evans had seen first hand what Jardine had been trying to tell him all along.
“Keith said ‘you’re gonna get his timing, and there’s a point when you’re going to see em’ coming,’” Evans said. “‘When you see it coming, get off first—don’t sit there and wait.’ And that’s what I did. As soon as he had me against the fence, you can always tell when he’s coming, so as soon as I see him make that face, I just tried to bust off first.”
And he did, uncorking a right hand that brought Liddell’s motor functions to a screeching halt. Despite Evans’ reputation as a workman in the cage, he had delivered another piece of fight footage that will forever play in the UFC’s video library.
“I did a lot of hard work to get to this point,” Evans said afterwards. “And it’s not just me, I have my great teammates to help me get to this point, as well as my coaches, Mike Winkeljohn and coach (Greg) Jackson. As a team, we all help each other out. No man deserves the credit totally on his own, and I’m just happy to have a great coaches and teammates to help me.”
Many cynics predicted that Evans would not see a title shot against champ Forrest Griffin, whatever the outcome of the fight, and before UFC president Dana White announced he would, Evans might have been in that camp. "I’m a patient man," he said at the post-fight podium. "I’m just enjoying the ride and whatever happens, however long it takes, it takes.”
It wouldn’t take long, though, as White subsequently informed the press that Evans would get his shot at the light heavyweight belt, presumably at UFC 92 on Dec. 27 in Las Vegas.
With the reversal of fortune, Evans looks to a quick return against Griffin, a fighter he deeply respects. But he doesn’t intend on squandering the opportunity he’s worked so hard to get.
“I love Forrest Griffin, man,” Evans said. “Forrest Griffin is a fun, exciting fighter. He works hard for everything he’s got. He deserves everything he’s got. He’s definitely my kind of fighter, because if I beat Forrest, then I’m the champ. But I’m excited to fight Forrest.”
