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UFC’s Rashad Evans comments on Paul Daley firing, upcoming Rampage Jackson fight, and Kimbo Slice’s future
By Zach Arnold | May 13, 2010
Quotes from his interview on Tuesday with Bruce Buffer…
On watching Paul Daley implode at UFC 113 and his subsequent firing
“You know I was just kind of disappointed that a such great fighter like Paul Daley you know took those measures, you know I mean, you know it happens in all kinds of sports where people kind of lose their temper and you see them kind of go crazy and throw some punches or they go in the stands and start you know throwing some punches or whatever, I mean people lose their temper in sports. It’s not uncommon, it’s just unfortunate that you know a great fighter like Paul Daley that has so much potential you know fell victim to his emotions, you know, I mean, it’s kind of hard to describe what you go through sometimes when you get in a cage and you’re fighting because you go through a rainbow of emotions and sometimes you try to control them but sometimes it gets hard to, you know, and you know seeing that Saturday was very unfortunate because you know despite losing the fight, I don’t think he had too bad of a performance, I think that he was not ready, you know, he was just not ready for someone like Koscheck. That does not mean he would never be but I just think he was not ready and it was sad to see him fall victim to his emotions.”
On all the trash talk with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson leading up to UFC 114 in Las Vegas and the training he’s been going through to get into the best shape possible
“All the trash talking, all the build-up is finally going to come to a head, you know, and you know it’s a big fight, I mean, I’m excited for it. I’m excited to see how I perform you know because I’ve been building up and you know getting caught up with the trash talking and just kind of enjoying it for the most part but now is time for the talking to ending and the fighting to begin.”
“All the words that we said back and forth to each other, you know, we get to see exactly who can actually back up what they say and it’s kind of exciting, at the time same time it can be a bit nerve-wracking you know because you don’t want to find yourself on the other end of an unfortunate punch or something like that and look stupid but that’s the price you pay when you open your mouth, you know.”
“This is a fun fight more than anything, you know. We’re professional athletes. At the same time, you know sometimes fighting in the fight game can feel like a job and every once in a while you get blessed with a treat and actually have a fight that’s actually fun, you know and it’s fun the whole way, you know, you get a little trash talking, you know you get a little rivalry going, something extra little motivation to make it a little bit fun, make it about competing and having fun again because sometimes it’s easy to just you know make it like a job and as you know, when you something a job it can become tiresome, monotonous, and boring, so it’s fun to just have a fight where it’s going to just be all about fun.”
“You know, there’s qualities that I don’t like about him and I can’t overall say that I hate him altogether but you know the qualities that I don’t like about him overpower the qualities that I do like about it. I’ll just say it like that. But for the most part, yeah, I don’t like him too much.”
“Well, I’m doing about two to three (training) sessions a day, but I’m keeping them pretty short and I’m keeping them intense. At this level, it’s all about trying to get out of training camp without being injured by going very intense and getting good technique and being effective, you know, it’s so hard, you want to push yourself and go, go until you’re just dog tired and you can’t move anymore but then at the same time that’s when you open yourself up for injuries and at this late in the game, at this stage where I’m at right now you know three weeks before my fight, you know I just got to be careful, you know what I’m saying. It just sucks to come this far and then just have something mess me up and go into the fight hurt because no matter what I’m going to fight no matter what, you know what I’m saying unless it’s something very detrimental where I can’t you know move or get beyond and I’m going to go in there. I’ve fought many fights hurt and I’m sure most fighters do but right now I’m feeling 100%, I’m feeling blessed about it, I’m going to train smart and continue to train smart.”
On doors and furniture getting shredded on The Ultimate Fighter
“The materials that are used to make some of the stuff on The Ultimate Fighter show are not high-quality for good reasons like people tearing a door down and stuff like that. I mean they tore that door down and probably had another one up there in an hour, so they probably got doors on stand-by on that show and they got a lot of things like that on the show because they know people will tear up stuff like that, you know what I’m saying.”
On Kimbo Slice’s tenure in UFC and whether or not he has an MMA future
“I think he can continue to fight, I just think that in an organization such as UFC you know a lot of the guys, the level s just so high you know, it’s just so high and when you’re in a position and you’re in an organization like UFC, it’s everybody’s big opportunity so you find guys may not altogether be you know better than you rising to the level just because this is their moment to shine and if you can’t match that intensity, if you can’t match that level when it’s time to then you’re going to find yourself in an unfortunate position like Kimbo found himself in. I think that you know one thing I wish that Kimbo would have done was find himself a good team, and I’m not saying that ATT (American Top Team) is not a good team, I don’t know what their training was with Kimbo, but I still seen you know holes in his game as far as his conditioning level, you know what I’m saying, and the fact that he wastes a lot of energy just you know being stronger on brute strength when if he used a little bit more power effectively then he could have actually conserved a little bit more energy. But you know with Kimbo he kind of had a hard time finding his niche just because when he came into fighting, he already had this huge target on his back, everybody seen him from his Internet sensational videos and they just wanted to go out there and get a rep(utation) off him so it did not make it easy for him to go into a gym and find training partners that was not out to try to hurt him, so that mindset carried on with all his training and I think it was hard for him to find a place where he could finally train and finally learn and sit down and do the regiment that he needed to prepare himself effectively for a fight.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
You know, after a while those “you knows” can become distracting. I found that it helps overcome the monotony to mentally picture Caol U-no every time a “you know” is encountered.
With that being said, I do think Rashad has been doing a decent job on MMA Live and maybe, just maybe the face-heel scale is shifting towards face.
I imagine Butters responding “Yes, I know what you are saying!”
oh I am definitely using this in the future. I can’t stop laughing.
He’s got Scott Coker Syndrome!
I prefer to think of it as Triggitis ….. YOU KNOW!
It seems to me that some people just cant abide Rashad with the speaking clearly and the english and the so forth and the such.
If he would just charge down a crowded street in his monster truck then we could fit him in a little bit better.