"I get the chance to fight Shogun. I hope he heals up well and I fight Shogun. I've been reading a lot of stuff that Rampage has been saying. He said that I laid and prayed. Dog, I took him down and whenever I took him down, I was punching. I don't know what fight people were watching. If anything, whenever I had him against the cage, I was kneeing him, I was hitting him with potshots and then, when the action got slow, Herb Dean broke us up. I don't understand why these people keep saying I laid and prayed on him for...I don't understand what they want to see. They want to see 2 guys go in there and swing for the fences and if that's the case, they are truly watching the wrong sport because that's not what mixed martial arts is about," stated former light heavyweight champion as he shared his thoughts on comments regarding his clash with Rampage Jackson at UFC 114. Check it out!
PC: You've been all over the place, so we're just catching up. I gotta congratulate you on the win over Rampage. How do you feel about your performance?
RE: I felt good, man. I went in there and did exactly what I wanted to do, man. I kept him off balance and kept him guessing and I felt good about it. I don't think I did too much wrong in the fight. Rampage is a legend in the sport and to go in there and hold your own against someone as highly regarded as he is in the sport is a big deal.
PC: Did you see that he perhaps kept a lazy left hand early in his fights, where you knew you would be able to land that right hand? Because you threw it with conviction.
RE: We saw some film and a lot of times, when he rolls, blocks and covers up, he's susceptible to that right hand, so I just went in there and threw it. I knew I had to get some respect from him, so I went in there and put a lot of pressure on him right out of the gate. He thought I was just going to try to move around and stay away from his power. I knew he was just going to try to walk me down, but after that shot, he just conceded to anything that I wanted to do. Whatever pace I set, he conceded to it.
PC: You had him in some bad positions, and I have talked to people on your team that thought you could finish Rampage. At any point, did you feel like you were going to be able to stop him?
RE: Yeah, I felt like I should have stopped him when I first got him down on the cage. I thought I should have been able to stop him, but I didn't drop the punches down on him like I should have. I felt like when I had him down there that I was going to be able to stop him because he wasn't strong at all, to be honest.
PC: Really?
RE: Nah, he wasn't strong. I was really surprised about that. He wasn't as strong as I expected him to be, I should say. When you're rolling around with guys like King Mo, that's probably the strongest dude I've ever rolled around with. And then you go roll around with a dude like Rampage, the strength is not comparable.
PC: Trev Wittman told me that it wasn't a punch that put you down in the 3rd, but you realized you had gone too far from the center of the cage and went for a sloppy shot and jammed your neck. Was that the case?
RE: Yeah, that's exactly what it was. The strategy was to not be against the cage. I felt like I was being backed into the cage and I went for a shot without really setting it up and I jammed my neck up pretty bad. I had a stinger in practice before the fight and it came back. It came back with force. I kinda got paralyzed on the side and I couldn't move. My right side was numb. I couldn't feel it.
PC: I know all about stingers from my football playing days. There is nothing fun about those things.
RE: (Laughing) Nah man.
PC: Physically, Rampage is out of the way, but I see you guys have been lighting it up on each other on Twitter. Shogun is the next challenge, right?
RE: Yeah man. I get the chance to fight Shogun. I hope he heals up well and I fight Shogun. I've been reading a lot of stuff that Rampage has been saying. He said that I laid and prayed. Dog, I took him down and whenever I took him down, I was punching. I don't know what fight people were watching. If anything, whenever I had him against the cage, I was kneeing him, I was hitting him with potshots and then, when the action got slow, Herb Dean broke us up. I don't understand why these people keep saying I laid and prayed on him for. He also said, "It was a boring game plan and another Greg Jackson lay-and-pray fight plan." It was none of that.
PC: Honestly, I disagreed with a couple of the separations. Those elbows and hammerfists you were landing on his thighs is considered working.
RE: Yeah! Listen, when I was watching Rampage, I figured he was gonna know that I was going to try and take his legs out, so what he is going to try and do is jump on me as soon as I throw one leg kick. He's gonna take one leg kick to try to close the distance and land 3 to 4 shots. He's very explosive like that. I really didn't want to kick him from the outside. That's why I wasn't throwing any leg kicks. That's why, when I got him against the cage, I was dropping shots on his knees and on his legs. That's what I was doing, dropping shots on his knees, legs and thighs. I was trying to wear on his legs that way and I felt it worked because he was slow.
PC: Fans and everyone have to understand that they are watching mixed martial arts, and wrestling is a vital part of the mixed. They thought you guys hated each other so much, you were going to go in there and punch until one of you fell down and if you thought that, you haven't watched enough fights.
RE: I don't understand it either. I don't understand what they want to see. They want to see 2 guys go in there and swing for the fences and if that's the case, they are truly watching the wrong sport because that's not what mixed martial arts is about. They have to understand what the sport is about in order to be fans of it. People saying I'm doing pro wrestling; dog, I'm not pro wrestling. I'm just using a facet of the sport. If you're telling me I'm fighting a Jiu Jitsu guy, but yet, I can't stay off of my back or I can't stay out of Jiu Jitsu positions, guess what? I failed at my game plan and succumbed to his game plan, right? If I'm fighting a boxer and I'm a Jiu Jitsu guy and the fight stays standing up and he boxes the shit out of me, then guess what? I fail out of my game plan. I don't understand what the big hoopla is about. We don't like each other, but that doesn't mean just because we don't like each other, we're going to forget how to fight. I'm not going to forget that he hits hard. I'm not going to take no punches from anybody.
PC: There was a lot of back-and-forth trash talk going on between you guys. How much do you feel you got into Rampage's head mentally?
RE: I got into his head pretty bad. I mean, the dude is still talking about it. He can't quit talking about it and I'm bad myself because I keep responding to him. I just can't fathom it; it's like, what are these people talking about. I had to hear it all the way up until the fight. I'm trying to say positive stuff about me getting ready for the fight and the only thing I hear is Rampage's fans saying he gonna put me to sleep, he's going to pick me up and slam me. Just all of this stupid shit. It's like the magic of Rampage Jackson. "He picked one man up and slammed him with one arm and if he hits you one time, you're going to be lucky if you're not dead." All of that bullshit that I had to hear. And then, I beat him, and it's, "Oh my God, you didn't really beat him. You outwrestled him." Okay, so I outwrestled him and the motherfucker couldn't stop me, so I guess I won anyway. I mean, fuck, if I didn't do anything in the fight, you sure as hell couldn't think Rampage did anything. It bothers me because even the round that I was down and he had a chance to finish me, I ended up coming back and winning that round anyway. How many times did I get him in a crucifix position? Like 3 times? I mean, come on man.
PC: I actually had to argue the fact that you won that 3rd round with a lot of people. Being hurt for 30 seconds in a 5-minute round doesn't equate to you losing that round.
RE: That's thing that amazes me about these fans. I give up on these fans man. I'm not going to be like, "Man, I don't know why these guys don't like me." If they don't like me, they don't like me. I'm to the point where I don't care. I went back to my wrestling for the last 2 fights, but before that, I was standing and banging and trying to do shit to please them. But because I went back to my wrestling in my last 2 fights, they got a problem with that. Even for the Rampage fight, I did some takedowns, but for the most part, I wasn't holding nobody down in a stagnant position to where they had to stand us back up. If you're laying and praying, then that's not advancing your positioning and just holding your opponent down. That's lay-and-pray. There was not one point in the fight where I was on top not doing anything; the referee would have stopped it and restarted us. You're not going to please these fans and that bothers me because I'm one of them dudes that wants to give the fans a lot of love because I know what it's like to meet somebody that you watch on TV. I met some people that I watched on TV and when I met them, they were assholes and I'm like, "Damn, I don't never want to be like that." Even if I'm having a shitty day, I make them feel like they're important because they watch me fight. That's what it's all about man. But no matter what I do, these motherfuckers are always booing me or got shit to say online. But you know what? I have never met one of them that said, "I don't like you." I have never met one that said, "You know what? I'm not a fan of yours." Not one of them.
PC: I bet you get a lot of picture and autograph requests though?
RE: Oh my God. "One picture please." They are the ones to do it. I can walk through the MGM and sign autographs and take pictures for about 2 or 3 hours, and then I walk into the arena and everybody booing me. And then after the fight, everyone wants to take a picture with me and I'm like, "Well, who the fuck was booing me?" At some point, you would think you gotta see somebody that's like, "Hey, fuck you." It doesn't happen though.
MUCH MORE TO COME FROM FORMER UFC LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION RASHAD EVANS
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