UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans can relate to middleweight champion Anderson Silva, if it’s the case that the record-setting fighter is bored with his job.
“I’ve been out there and felt like not even fighting,” he told MMAWeekly.com. “You never know who’s going to show up on fight day. You go out there, and that night, you just don’t feel it. Sometimes you just walk into the arena, and you’re like, ‘you know what, man? Today, I just don’t feel like it. I don’t feel like I got that same spring.’ It just happens like that. Maybe he just woke up and felt like he was rhyming slow that day.”
On the other hand, he believes the champion has equal responsibility with the challenger to create an exciting fight. Silva has gotten most of the blame for the main event of UFC 97, a fight that saw the UFC fans turn on him and Thales Leites.
“As a challenger, you’ve gotta be hungry enough to get after it, that’s first and foremost, but the champion, you’ve gotta have a little like, ‘(expletive) do you think you can take this belt from me?’” continued Evans. “You gotta be a little pissed at the fact that they even accepted the fight with you, you know what I’m saying? You’ve got some nerve to even take this fight.”
Evans takes his motivation from Georges St. Pierre trainer Firas Zahabi when looking at an opponent.
“He said, ‘you need to make an example of him,’” said Evans. “That’s a very powerful statement. That way, people don’t want to fight you. They’d rather move to another weight class to have a title shot. That’s the kind of fear you should put into somebody as a champion. “
Though Silva has had no trouble with his weight class, the question of whether he’ll make things interesting by moving up to light heavyweight is one that’s in the works right now.
Evans thinks Silva needs to get in touch with the guy who first came into the UFC in June of 2006.
“Anderson’s a big boy, but I think he’s fallen in love with his movement a little bit,” said Evans. “He don’t have that dog in him, that hunch on his shoulder like when he first came into the UFC. ‘They gonna put me against Chris Leben? I’m gonna murder this dude.’ And he murdered that dude. ‘And Rich Franklin, Rich Franklin’s a great champion, but he doesn’t know what being the champion is about.’ He destroyed him. I think he’s missing that attitude that he had. I don’t know if he’s bored, or whatever the case may be, but he just don’t have that same dog in him.”
One fighter that still has the dog is Chuck Liddell, but it’s questionable whether his body can back it up. Evans says no.
“It’s lost for him,” he said. “A season ago, he was just the man. I don’t know if I took his soul, but it’s hard to believe things went down for him. It’s sad, because as a fighter, you get a glimpse of what’s in store for you. You’re like, ‘Is this how it’s going to end for me? Am I just going to go out as abruptly as a came in, or am I going to fade out?’ It’s so hard to see somebody like Chuck Liddell go out like that because, no matter what, you got love for Chuck Liddell. Any fight fan, you’ve got love for Chuck Liddell. But seeing him like that, it was painful to see.”
Evans is unsure of how he would respond in the same situation.
“I would want to go out on top,” he said. “But it’s always easy to say, 'I wouldn’t do this,' and, 'I’d be able to go out on top,' because you don’t know how you’re going to feel. I’m sure Chuck is like, ‘Damn, I still got it.’ I’m sure he feels like that, but his reactions are really bad. He has really bad reaction time. He doesn’t react good anymore. It’s like damn, dude, you might have to just call it.”
The light heavyweight champion has a couple more weeks of hard training before he begins his slow cut to 205. His challenger on May 23, Lyoto Machida, may be the toughest fight he’s ever had.
Boredom will not be an option.
“I’ve been out there and felt like not even fighting,” he told MMAWeekly.com. “You never know who’s going to show up on fight day. You go out there, and that night, you just don’t feel it. Sometimes you just walk into the arena, and you’re like, ‘you know what, man? Today, I just don’t feel like it. I don’t feel like I got that same spring.’ It just happens like that. Maybe he just woke up and felt like he was rhyming slow that day.”
On the other hand, he believes the champion has equal responsibility with the challenger to create an exciting fight. Silva has gotten most of the blame for the main event of UFC 97, a fight that saw the UFC fans turn on him and Thales Leites.
“As a challenger, you’ve gotta be hungry enough to get after it, that’s first and foremost, but the champion, you’ve gotta have a little like, ‘(expletive) do you think you can take this belt from me?’” continued Evans. “You gotta be a little pissed at the fact that they even accepted the fight with you, you know what I’m saying? You’ve got some nerve to even take this fight.”
Evans takes his motivation from Georges St. Pierre trainer Firas Zahabi when looking at an opponent.
“He said, ‘you need to make an example of him,’” said Evans. “That’s a very powerful statement. That way, people don’t want to fight you. They’d rather move to another weight class to have a title shot. That’s the kind of fear you should put into somebody as a champion. “
Though Silva has had no trouble with his weight class, the question of whether he’ll make things interesting by moving up to light heavyweight is one that’s in the works right now.
Evans thinks Silva needs to get in touch with the guy who first came into the UFC in June of 2006.
“Anderson’s a big boy, but I think he’s fallen in love with his movement a little bit,” said Evans. “He don’t have that dog in him, that hunch on his shoulder like when he first came into the UFC. ‘They gonna put me against Chris Leben? I’m gonna murder this dude.’ And he murdered that dude. ‘And Rich Franklin, Rich Franklin’s a great champion, but he doesn’t know what being the champion is about.’ He destroyed him. I think he’s missing that attitude that he had. I don’t know if he’s bored, or whatever the case may be, but he just don’t have that same dog in him.”
One fighter that still has the dog is Chuck Liddell, but it’s questionable whether his body can back it up. Evans says no.
“It’s lost for him,” he said. “A season ago, he was just the man. I don’t know if I took his soul, but it’s hard to believe things went down for him. It’s sad, because as a fighter, you get a glimpse of what’s in store for you. You’re like, ‘Is this how it’s going to end for me? Am I just going to go out as abruptly as a came in, or am I going to fade out?’ It’s so hard to see somebody like Chuck Liddell go out like that because, no matter what, you got love for Chuck Liddell. Any fight fan, you’ve got love for Chuck Liddell. But seeing him like that, it was painful to see.”
Evans is unsure of how he would respond in the same situation.
“I would want to go out on top,” he said. “But it’s always easy to say, 'I wouldn’t do this,' and, 'I’d be able to go out on top,' because you don’t know how you’re going to feel. I’m sure Chuck is like, ‘Damn, I still got it.’ I’m sure he feels like that, but his reactions are really bad. He has really bad reaction time. He doesn’t react good anymore. It’s like damn, dude, you might have to just call it.”
The light heavyweight champion has a couple more weeks of hard training before he begins his slow cut to 205. His challenger on May 23, Lyoto Machida, may be the toughest fight he’s ever had.
Boredom will not be an option.
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