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The UFC's unlikely champ is ready for his close-up |
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Written by Chad Dundas
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Thursday, 14 May 2009 |
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 If you had to choose a single word to describe the UFC career of Rashad Evans to this point, you couldn’t do much better than to simply say: Unlikely.
During his four-year, nine-fight stint in the Octagon, the former Michigan State wrestler has babied-stepped his way along a path from a low-ceiling heavyweight prospect to surprising knockout artist and – suddenly – light heavyweight champion.
Now, the only thing between the undefeated Evans and a legitimate claim at being the best in the world is a main event fight with Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida approximately 10 days from now at UFC 98.
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It is undoubtedly the biggest fight of his career and the only people who don’t seem surprised by his journey from the bottom-feeder to the top dog are Evans and trainer Greg Jackson. And, heck even Evans admits he’s a little flabbergasted.
“How did I get to be headlining over Matt Hughes on a UFC card?” exclaimed Evans in an interview with former CraveOnline columnist and current CagePotato.com blogger Ben Fowlkes a couple weeks back. “I mean, Matt Hughes? It’s Matt Hughes, man. It just makes you really stop and think.”
It does indeed. Hughes, a UFC legend and arguably the company’s greatest ever champion, has been relegated to “co-main event” status in his fight with long-time nemesis Matt Serra next Saturday. Evans is getting top billing and smart money says that’s probably eating at Hughes a little bit.
As a coach, Hughes branded Evans a showboat early in the pair’s appearance in the second season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” saying he was happy the 5-foot-11, 225-pound fighter wasn’t on his team after Evans clowned his way through his first couple of fights.
They eventually made peace and the Illinois farm boy even cornered him during his semifinal victory over future Jackson teammate Keith Jardine. Evans then shocked everyone, including probably the UFC, by defeating the huge but unskilled Brad Imes at the finale to capture the company’s “lucrative” contract.
When you consider that Evans used to wrestle at 174-pounds in college, you being to realize what a true long-shot he was. Certainly the most unlikely TUF winner this side of
Amir Sadollah. Turned out, he was just getting started.
Evans ground out three underwhelming decision wins to begin his official UFC career, dropping to light heavy immediately after defeating Imes. None of them were even unanimous. It appeared that he was having difficulty supplementing his amateur wrestling skill set; it appeared he lacked a killer instinct. It appeared he would be nothing more than a middle-of- the pack 205-pounder, a wrestler swimming upstream in a sport where there is no five-figure bonus for “takedown of the night.”
In this case, appearances were deceiving.
Something seemed to click with Evans. We’ll likely never know exactly what it was. Perhaps his work with the Jackson camp started to show dividends. Perhaps he simply decided it was time to start cashing in on his bottomless well of talent.
Whatever the reason, he started knocking people out.
First he crumpled Jason Lambert at UFC 63. Next he nearly decapitated Sean Salmon with a high kick at Fight Night 8. A draw against former champion Tito Ortiz and split decision win over Michael Bisping established him as a legitimate contender. Then Evan etched his name indelibly onto the Octagon’s “all time greatest knockouts” list with a vicious overhand right that pushed Chuck Liddell to the precipice of retirement in the second round of their bout at UFC 88.
Suddenly – at 12-0-1 – Rashad Evans was for real.
Evans’ ugly third round TKO over Forrest Griffin in December wasn’t entirely unexpected, but it did succeed in making him the most unlikely 205-pound champion since – well – Forrest Griffin. Now he’s on the verge of being a breakout star in a division that was once full of them, but suddenly finds itself sorely lacking in personality.
To get there he has to best the also undefeated Machida – an elusive, awkward fighter many see as long overdue for a title shot. At this point their bout next Saturday is probably a pick ’em. If Evans can hunt down the Karate stylist and put him on his back long enough to score a victory, he’ll cement his position as the UFC’s best.
On the other hand, if Machida can exploit Evans with the same deadly, hunt-and-peck attack he’s used to march to his own 14-0 record, then he’ll likely by anointed hardcore fans of the sport’s new chosen one.
For Evans, the road to the championship has been long and implausible. Whether or not he continues to be the UFC’s most unlikely superstar all depends on what happens next Saturday night.
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