Rashad Evans recently spoke with Tom Hamlin about Chuck Liddell, Anderson Silva, and his mentality as a champion:
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.”
“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. “
In baseball(when I was pitching), I always took it personal with each batter that came up to the plate. My mentality was that that was my batter's box, and I'm going to send that ass back to the dugout with the long face(the mad he struckout or got out face). On the flipside, when I was hitting, I took it personal that the pitcher thought that he could really get me out. So I completely understand what Evans is communicating here, and I completely agree with him.
On Liddell:
“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?’
I laughed when I first read that statement about taking Liddell's soul. However, after thinking about it some more there could be some validity in it. I mean it was the first time that Liddell had been KO'ed with a one hitta quitta type punch, plus Liddell was out on the canvas for a long time afterwards. I'm sure that KO had some effect on Liddell. I mean he didn't fight again for seven months. I think Liddell's fall from grace so quickly was based on his style of fighting. It was soley dependant on reflexes, countering his opponents offense. Nowdays, he simply isn't able to react as fast as he used to. Plus, the KO's by Rampage and Rashad were pretty brutal. What are your thoughts on Rashad's statements?
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