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Rashad Evans on Kimbo Slice, Brock Lesnar, and coming back from a UFC loss
By Zach Arnold | July 16, 2009
Rashad Evans did a radio interview on ESPN 1100 in Las Vegas (audio here) and here are some of the comments he said during the interview in regards to the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter, Kimbo Slice, his altercation with Rampage Jackson at UFC 100, Brock Lesnar’s post-fight antics, and coming back from a knockout loss to Machida. (You can access many ESPN 1100 radio interviews over at Cage Writer.)
TRANSCRIPT
Interviewer: “Like earlier this year to talk about Kimbo it was insane how many people wanted to talk about him. What can you tell us about Kimbo Slice trying to come across the UFC?”
Rashad: “I think it’s a good move man, Kimbo he’s definitely talented and he’s a lot different than people expect, you know he’s probably one of the most humble persons I’ve ever met in my life.”
Interviewer: “Is that right?”
Rashad: “Yeah, yeah, Kimbo’s super cool, man, he’s a super cool guy.”
Interviewer: “Now he had the opportunity to go over to Japan and make some pretty good dough there but he decided instead he wanted to get involved here in the UFC so what does that tell you about him?”
Rashad: “You know, one thing about Kimbo is that I talked to him on the show and he said you know all I want to do is just say I was good enough for it, you know to say when I’m done when it’s said and done I was good and that to me showed a lot because a lot of people say stuff about making money and everything else like that but he’s talking about all he wants to do is to be considered good.”
“I think his strength is probably you know he definitely has power in his hands but I think his biggest strength is his heart and how fast he learns.”
Interviewer: “What happened at the fight card on Saturday night when apparently you two got into it a little bit?” [The scuffle between Rashad Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson]
Rashad: “What happened Saturday was pretty much the same thing that’s been happening you know all show same that’s been happening all show is that you know we seen each other and it was pretty much the same thing, you know we got into it again. I mean it’s just it just wasn’t the right place but it just happens every single time we’re together, it’s always something you know.”
Interviewer: “Are you guys like two brothers that don’t get along or two neighbors that just despite one another?”
Rashad: “I can’t even call him man, maybe there’s a little bit of both, I can’t even call him man because it’s like I don’t know I kind of look at him and he sets me off, you know what I’m saying, he sets me off, he can just walking by me just doing nothing but I look at him and I just get set off.”
Interviewer: “What did you think about what Brock did after the fight then?”
Rashad: “I thought it was a bit unnecessary, I thought he was just maybe caught up in the moment too much and I don’t dislike him for it but I just think that it was a bit unnecessary and he just got caught up in the moment.”
Interviewer: “I mean, what was the worst part about it do you think? I don’t know if we can rank them or not, but he flipped off the crowd obviously, you can’t say what he said about the sponsor, that had to be the #1 thing I think for Dana White, what he said about his wife, and also just getting in Mir’s face I mean the whole thing you thought was bad or was there one thing that really stood out?”
Rashad: “To me, just getting in Mir’s face was the worst about anything. He can pretty say what he wants to be portrayed however he wants you know I’m not always perfect when I go in there and I do my thing and people criticize what I do but I just thought for me if was just to get back in Frank Mir’s face after he just knocked him out the guy was barely even conscious that to me was just like that’s not cool you know.”
Interviewer: “Yeah, because you blew a kiss before, right?”
Rashad: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I actually blew a kiss and I kind of grabbed myself but I didn’t even think it was just like something I kind to reacted and did it and you know people have lots to say about it even my Mom had something to say about it, even my Mom gave me the business about it so you know I’m not one to sit up there and say you should be you know I can’t say somebody should be perfect when they go in there and their actions should be perfect because I’m not that guy either but I thought going in the guy’s face after he knocked him out was a little too far, that’s just me and my personal opinion.”
Interviewer: “How do you rebound after what happened to you in your last fight and that was a pretty devastating knockout you endured, how do you come back from something of that nature?”
Rashad: “You just accept it for what it was, you know I went in there and got my butt kicked you know hands down got a butt, got it whooped you know and I never lost before and to accept what actually happened will help me move on further because now I accepted it what happened and I watched the video and seeing images of it and I’m not haunted by it, you know it’s not going to haunt me. It’s going to propel me to move forward and amend the mistakes that led me to get knocked out in the first place. I’m never say I’ll never lose again and get knocked out but that’s just another side of the fight game which I’ve yet to experience, you know now I understand that realities out there now I understand that can happen to me, I’ll be more vigilant and careful about the things that I do allow my camp that may distract me or things that I do allow that may take me from where I want to be and may end up for me having results like that.”
Interviewer: “So you’re over it then?”
Rashad: “I’m over it, I accepted it and I mean I don’t care who talks about it or say hey you know earlier today my son he seen a pimple on my face and he said, “What happened, you get knocked out?” I was like, man, this kid is two years old and he’s like, ‘What happened, you get knocked out?’ and I’m like, man, I don’t… I don’t get knocked out and then my daughter she’s like, ‘Daddy you know for father’s day I was going to get you something’ and I said ‘What’s that baby?’ and she said ‘Daddy I was going to get you your belt back because you lost it.’ And I was like, oh okay, she was going to make me a belt because I lost my belt for father’s day.”
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