MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Storytime with Suga: Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans

Episode Date: April 28, 2021

Brian Campbell is joined by UFC Hall of Famer Suga Rashad Evans to travel back in time to his fight with UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell. Rashad shares a story about sitting backstage and seeing a graphic that only 18% of fans thought he could win. Did Mike Winkeljohn really predict the knockout? What was it like facing off with Chuck Liddell? Rashad shares a story about Chuck paying Rashad's hotel bill before the fight. Check it all out here! (00:00:00) - Intro (00:00:30) - Pre Fight (00:35:55) - Round 1 (00:53:00) - Round 2 (01:04:00) - Post Fight Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

morning combat back at it it is mk all day nearly every day and it's bonus video time today as you look into my eyes the bbc the beige one brian campbell story time with sugar is back i've got hall of famer rashad evans the former light heavyweight champ of the world. And Rashad, this is what we do. You and I fight by fight moment by moment. You're as concise and candid as we could ever hope for in today is a big one. September 6th, 2008 UFC 88 Rashad Evans versus Chuck Liddell. How much Rashad does it get you fired up to go back down memory road with we on this one?

Oh man, this one right here, it gets me especially fired up. You know, there was a turning point in my career at this fight. And, um, you know, I still remember just the feelings that I had going into this fight as if it was yesterday and, you know, just all the emotion around it. So this is a huge one for me because I still, I still feel so much. A true star making moment, almost a passing of the guard from one former champion and certainly pay-per-view draw to a new one who was on the way.

So we encourage you to like this video, subscribe to everything we are doing here on morning combat on youtube or whether you're listening on uh orally if you will we do oral on the show apparently we do uh via via podcast but uh we got a lot of fun stuff as always last episode on story time with sugar we of course looked at the split decision win over michael bisping which was the launching point for 28 yearyear-old Rashad Evans to enter this fight. Rashad, before we start breaking it down, and we're going to break it down in excessive detail here,

this might be the – it's crazy to say, but this might be the biggest win of your career. I know you would go on to win the UFC title, but this is Chuck Liddell in one of the most iconic finishes in UFC history. Yeah, no doubt. This was the biggest fight in my career. You know, just the stakes weren't, you know, for a belt or anything like that. But what was at stake was a lot. You know, it really meant, you know, if I was going to be that athlete who got a chance to be a blockbuster athlete by having so many, you know, high numbers and pay-per-views or becoming a champion, I would have to get by a Chuck Liddell, you know,

and, you know, my stock wasn't selling unless I could beat somebody like Chuck Liddell. And I've reached the point up until Chuck Liddell where I've beaten, you know, my peers that, you know, my skill level, and now it's time for me to graduate to a new level. So had I not been able to do this i may have just stuck around competing against the same guys and may not advance to the next level of competition you were 10 months removed at ufc 88 from that victory over biz pink so it's it's obvious that they were ufc was ready to move you with intention here closer to a title fight this was a big opportunity the title of course is UFC 88

breakthrough back when we used to have those into Rashad I mean just a a general look at the storylines here it makes a lot of sense the UFC's trying to find out is this Rashad Evans for real as a brand as a potential title contender we know the result of this fight we know this would be your last stop before getting a title shot but for Chuck Chuck Liddell, the old gunslinger here, he was fresh off a big comeback win that he needed nine months earlier when he took a unanimous decision from Vonderlei Silva in one of the more fun action fights that we remember. A lot of hype for that one.

But right before that, he had had the knockout loss to Rampage Jackson for the title. He had had the split decision loss to your teammate, Keith Jardine. So this had a crossroads element feel. Can Chuck get back to being Chuck? Or is Rashad what we think he might be? Or is he just some athletic guy who dances a lot in the cage? You know, that narrative, Rashad, it's following you even into 2008 here, all right? I know, I know. and they wouldn't let me

they wouldn't let me shake it but I mean you you framed it up correctly you know this was a huge fight and uh for Chuck Liddell you know he came back after having a great fight with Vandelay Silva proving that you know he still has some tread left on his tires and he really excited a lot of people with that fight because there was glimpses of the old chuck in that fight and we just knew or those fans knew at the time that you know it took maybe just one more fight before he got a chance to become champion again and i was that one fight well this previous year and a half leading into this fight for you uh you had breakout moments after breakout moments look you had your first main event 2007 when you head kicked sean salmon to finish him that got people's attention then the draw with teeter t six months later which we talked about on this

episode in the past it was a lot to that you took from that you also maybe took some lateral steps or some you know it was a close fight against a big name, but you were still learning on the job. Well, then we got to the Michael Bisping fight where I think you made a, uh, you know, some huge leaps forward. So here we are September 6th, 2008 Atlanta is the backdrop Phillips arena, a sold out crowd of 14,736. It would do a $2.6 million gate for Chuck versus Rashad. 480,000 pay-per-view buys. That's not something to forget and blink at there. But you are 28 years old, 11-0-1 technically. Back then, of course, they're billing you at 16-0-1,

counting what, all the Ultimate Fighter wins, I guess, Rashad? Are we still on that? Yeah, well, they counted those because ours was the only season that was sanctioned for three rounds. You know, all the other ones were only sanctioned for two, and they had the extra one if they needed it. But ours was actually sanctioned for the three rounds. So it counted as a professional fight on our careers. Absolutely. Chuck Liddell coming in with that 21-5 record.

The former champion. I'm trying to get the Iceman's age. Correct here. Uh, 30, 38 years old. Does that make sense? 38 year old Chuck Liddell. I don't know if that's right. I'll have to do the math and check that out there in a second, but I found some tape of the Friday weigh-in in Rashad, Rashad in Atlanta, good stare down mutual respect. Chuck's got a little bit of belly fat around the stomach. You know,

you can see the abs poking through, but but that's that's sort of old man Chuck he's carrying himself a bit like an old man but he's still dangerous as heck um when you got the call off the biz penguin let's let's start right there where are you at mentally in your career um what do you think this fight could offer you how nervous are you at facing the aura of that legitimate right-hand power that is the Iceman's finishing move? Well, when I got the call, I was kind of excited because I just watched Keith Jardine beat Chuck Liddell. And for that camp, I was a big part of that camp,

just studying Chuck and trying to be Chuck Liddell for Keith Jardine a lot of times. So I had a pretty good idea on what to do against Chuck and kind of the whole, the scariness of Chuck kind of got taken away a bit when Keith Jardine beat him. And, you know, I started to see some holes in his game, but at the same time, I mean, this was Chuck Liddell. I mean, there was at the same time, this was Chuck Liddell. There was no escaping the fact that this was Chuck Liddell. I know my boy beat him. I know he got knocked out by Rampage, but at the same time, it was like maybe those were just off days. Maybe he's had something special for me. It was just one of those things that going into this fight

i was confident and i was ready but at the same time i was still mad nervous because i had chuck and chuck liddell man i mean that's the thing if you had watched that vanderley silva fight which i'm sure you did you know he still had it in that one you know you may have seen i don't want to i guess some slippage i mean look here i just checked it up he was 38 entering this fight against you so we're not tricking ourselves to believe that this is the guy who, you know, rolled through Tito and Babalu, but we're not that far removed from that version though. It's still who he is.

He's going to cock that right hand and you're either going to get hit by it, or you're going to find a way to get around him or as you did go through him. So I was watching that quick Friday weigh in tape. You say afterwards, you're excited as hell. I mean, you sound still like young wide-eyed Rashad I'm sure you you know probably started to live the life after this one we can get into that but Chuck got the microphone said I look forward to coming after him and putting him to sleep now Rashad I chucked out a phone interview oddly enough that you did a week after this fight with Penny Huffington of Combat Wire I don't know if that's still a thing, but you told a story about sitting in the locker room

before the start of this main event, UFC 88, and seeing some kind of fan poll result on the screen of fans texting in who they thought would win, and only 18% of fans thought you could beat Chuck Liddell. You told her, quote, wow, there are going to be a lot of upset people tonight. Is that a real story that happened? Yeah, that was a real story. I remember just sitting in the dressing room, you know, and this is after I had my mind just like in that,

in that, in that, you know, like the FU mode, you know, and I was just like really, really dialed in and really focused. And this after I had my talk with Randy Couture. So I was super dialed in. And when I seen that, I was like, oh yeah, they're going to be some really upset people, man, because they, listen, they weren't, they weren't even, they weren't, no one was giving me a chance in this whole thing to, to, to like, even going to like the whole thing, when it got set up, when it got set up, we went to Atlanta to do a press conference and, um, you know, me and Chuck Liddell, we, we do our, we do our, uh, spots together. Like we went, we went to the radio stations and we did it all together and stuff like that because the beef wasn't so bad. So we were traveling together

in the same, in the same van doing these, uh, you know, these pre-fight, um, you know, pre-fight interviews and stuff. So we're in a van together. And then it was towards the end of the day and they were like, Oh, Chuck, uh, Dana's waiting for you in the plane. So we got to drop you off first. And I was like, I was like, plane? I was like, I said, what do you mean? He says, oh, then Chuck was like, oh yeah, me and Dana flew together. And I was like, oh, you guys flew together? He said, yeah, we flew together on a private jet. And I was like, oh, wow. Okay. And I just did that, right? So I guess Jen Wink went back and said something to dana and then dana white uh he called me like when i got home after that event was just like bro you

know it's nothing like that me and chuck liddell's been friends for years and i used to manage him and he just you know he's trying to tell him that he's not he's not favoring him even though it may look as if it is here's the thing rashad he does have that does have that history. So when he tells you that, it's right. I mean, they were friends and he managed him. But if you watch the Conor McGregor documentary that's out there on, I don't know, Netflix or wherever it is, they went, you know, Lorenzo and Dana show up at Conor's rented house many times in Vegas

as he's preparing for Aldo or preparing for Mendez and they have the whiskey with him. So, you know, they're going to back in, in, in role with the guy who's the money man. And let's be honest about what you were up against here. Not, not just the power of Chuck, but like the ledge. I mean, he's like, you know, has there been a, a, a more organic fan favorite in UFC history than Chuck Liddell? The only other name that I could think that's in that unique category is like a Randy Couture, Captain America, somebody that the fans were like,

that's my guy ride or die. So, I mean, I could get, I could, you know, he's, he's a pillar of what the UFC is all about. Dana to this day still says, look up, you know, MMA fighter in the dictionary and you'll see Chuck. So you're fighting the aura. You're fighting the company. You're fighting a lot of things in this one, Rashad. But one thing that you talked about in this interview I mentioned about your confidence leading in that I'd like you to expand upon is you told the story, I believe this was your first camp with Jackson Wake, is that correct?

What, with the Chuck Liddell fight? It was early in your run at the very yeah yeah it was early it was early uh when i started working with them yeah well you had mentioned coach winkle john had found going through the tape early that opening of how you would end up winning this fight that overhand right and that he told you you would knock him out with it how much do you remember that being part of the game plan coming in um i remember it i remember that uh big time because uh me and coach winkle me and Coach Winkle, John, we would end every pad session. And our pad sessions were like an hour and a half.

And, you know, it was interesting. Mike Winkle, John, we'll be talking regular conversations. And then we do these combinations that we can go, you know, we'll end up like, you know, hitting Mitch for like an hour and a half. And then every single time that we finish, we'll end up with that combination. And it was one that gave me confidence because it would hit, you know, and it would make me feel like I can just like knock out a horse with that punch. So he always liked to end with that punch. And he's like telling me like, yo, you hit him with this punch. I'm telling you, he's going to go to sleep. He's gone. He's gone. And then on the day before the fight, when I was warming up, you know, I was hitting him in the mitts, and, you know, he was saying the same thing.

And he's like, you know what? This is the punch that's going to knock him out. You're going to hit him so hard, I'm not going to be able to get in the cage and congratulate you. That's what he said to me. He wasn't kidding right there. When you talk to Ms. Huffington about your camp, you mentioned, of course, Keith Jardim playing a big role who, as you said,

had just beaten Chuck by split decision in a very strategic, technical, but tough fight. You also talked about bringing in former heavyweight contender Paul Buonatello to mimic Chuck Liddell. Do you remember those sessions? Yeah, I do, man. Paul Buonatello was key. He's such a good boxer, the old headhunter. You know, one thing that Paul was good at, he had very good

boxing fundamentals, like old school boxing fundamentals. So he was very, you know, he was able to impart a lot of his wisdom on me and help me out big time in a fight with just range and distance and understand how to get him to walk into my traps. Absolutely. Now you also mentioned you thanked in this interview that I was referencing the work of all your teammates from GSP to Nate Marquardt, but I was wondering where the John Jones rise within Jackson Wink intersected with this. We know that looking at John Jones's Wikipedia page that he made his UFC debut a month earlier, August of 2008, when he took a decision from Andre Gusmaio.

Was he at this point already a big part of preparing you for these fights? No, he wasn't even nowhere to be found at this time. This is a time where we were just kind of, this is right before the whole Jon Jones era took over. It was after this fight, and I um after I became champion after the Machida Machida fight and Roy uh the um the rampage fight is when he started to come around all right before we officially kick it off Saturday night and you can re-watch of course this fight with us on UFC Fight Pass trying to shout out some time stamps here and there to let you know where we are back real

quick to that Friday weigh-in uh you know that's your maybe your first I mean's maybe your first chance to take off your shirt, go chest-to-chest with the damn Iceman. And again, we're talking about the legend. He's still the biggest star of all time. Lesnar hadn't made his move yet. Rousey and McGregor were to come. Chuck's the dude. What was it like that Friday weigh-in going eyeball-to-eyeball with him?

It was like a dream come true. I grew up watching Chuck Liddell on TV, and I was a big fan of Chuck Liddell and I, and I was aware of his devastation, his reign of devastation. Matter of fact, I was in a locker room when he knocked out Randy Couture and I was with Randy. And I just remember you like, dang, you know, he just seems so insurmountable at that time when he just dismissed, you know, Randy Couture and then Tito Ortiz and pretty much everybody was fighting. He was just dismissing them like they weren't even a challenge. So I was a fan of him. And then there I was standing face to face with Chuck Liddell.

And it was crazy because as intimidating as Chuck Liddell was, he was one of the kindest fighters I ever met. This is how kind Chuck Liddell was. Chuck was one of the kindest, kindest fighters I ever met. You know, this is how kind Chuck Liddell was. Chuck was so kind. When I told you that we went to Atlanta that time for the pre-fight, the UFC forgot to pick up my, my, my tab. So at the time it wasn't, I wasn't balling like that. And I was like, yo, they, they, they, they stiffed me on a bill and a bill was like, like, like, I don't know, like 1200 bucks. And I didn't want to spend that money. So Chuck Liddell was like, oh, don't worry about it. He took the bill and he paid it for me, man. OK, that's solid. That is solid. He paid it for me. He paid it for me. And I'm sure the UFC reimbursed him.

But just the simple fact that, you know, I'm saying like he's seen a look in my eyes and he was just like, don't worry about it, bro. I got you now. I was going to fight him. I mean, I'm supposed to fight him. And he just, you know, he did that. And they just kind of showed me the kind of heart that he had. But, you know, with that said, you know, I knew there was that heart. But then I knew on the other side of that, there was that ferocity of just, you know, the ferociousness of competing. Well, that Friday weigh in, like I said, you guys were cordial. There was respect. But as you were walking to the cage and we'll get to that in a second,

but I want to ask it now is that Mike Goldberg, the UFC play-by-play announcer, made a mention that, Rashad, that you had gotten under Chuck's skin during the buildup by playing up the idea that he's an old man and you're coming for the old man. Do you remember where this came from, and was there any real contention there? Yeah, it wasn't that bad. I mean, I think I was just kind of like responding to just like his general talk of saying that Rashad is going to stalemate and just kind of stand around

and I'm not going to allow that to happen. I'm going to knock him out if he tries to stalemate this fight out. And I was like, you know, just trying to respond like, you know, he's old, you know, and just kind of, you know just trying to respond like you know he's old you know and and just kind of you know trying to find some uh confidence in there but um you know it wasn't it wasn't nothing um too bad but I can kind of tell that you know me even looking at him like that kind of made him want to to piece me up pretty bad but he kept his composure we kick off the UFC fight pass re-air of this. Rashad and I always get hyped up to see the video packages.

You can see the young look in Rashad's face, just 28. Rashad says Chuck is going to come in ready, but he's going to see a Rashad Evans that no one has ever seen before. I think that would be true. Liddell says Rashad better be ready. If he thinks he's going to come in here and eke out a win like he normally does, I'm going to go after him and make it a brutal fight if he wants it. So Rashad, you had the head kick of Sean Salmon, but you had the draw with Tito. You had the split decision

with Biz Ping in both situations. You could have lost that fight with a wrong turn or maybe, you know, a late rally that didn't happen or did happen late to edge it. But did you feel like you're still coming in here with that reputation that if you could one day put it together, you could be great, but we still haven't seen it consistently? Yeah, I was coming in with that kind of pressure. You know, just the disrespect that I had going into this fight was crazy. It was crazy. I mean, there were reporters just pretty much, you know, saying it without saying it like, you know, what have you done to, to earn the right

to fight Chuck Liddell? That's how great Chuck Liddell was like, he, you know, you had to earn the right to fight Chuck Liddell. So, um, when they were coming at me like that, I felt very disrespected and going into the fight, going into fight week, I felt pretty good. I felt like I had a really good camp, but there was something that happened, you know, the night before the fight going into fight week I felt pretty good I felt like I had a really good camp but there was something that happened you know the night before the fight and I just got like this nerves that I couldn't shake to the point where I was like I called Randy Couture and I'm like yo Randy man I'm nervous man I'm nervous man I'm nervous I'm nervous so then he told me to come down I came down to his room and as soon as he opened the door I'm just like oh my god Randy and I just like fell on the floor and I'm like oh and I fell on his room. And as soon as he opened the door, I'm just like, oh, my God. And I just like fell on the floor and I fell on his bed. I was like, oh, my God, I'm so nervous.

I never felt like this before. And, you know, Randy was a mentor of mine at the time. Just always give me some good sage advice, like only Randy Couture can. You know, he's to this day, he's one of the best. If you ever got a problem, Randy might have the answer. He's that sage with his advice. So I like that. Yeah. Yeah. So so he's just like looking at me just like wallow and just, you know, give in to my fear. Now, there's nobody cooler than a cucumber than Randy Couture when it comes to a fight. I watch this guy host a party like 30 people before he went and fought. And he was cool with like he didn't have anything like it was not a problem at all. So he's,

he's, he's got ice, ice running through his veins at all times. So he's looking at me just like, go ahead. I love that. Well, we love your, your, you being candid about this. Was that fear about, you know, the fact that you're undefeated and this was such a big move up and you, you had headlined a pay-per-view before, but not against Chuck L Liddell so was it a fear of failure of losing or was it a straight up fear that you're going in there with a killer it was a fear of all of that it was a fear of failure as a fear of you know um getting knocked out because I never lost at that time I never even

got beat before you know and um never really been dazed really. So I was just afraid of the unknown, afraid of what it would be like to fight Chuck Liddell. And I'm watching guys that I greatly admire and guys who I thought were so good, like Randy Couture, just get pieced up. And I'm like, man, me and Randy go. And whenever I go up Randy, it's a hell of a go. Randy just doesn't stop. He's unrelenting. And I got to fight this guy. So I'm playing these mind games with myself.

You know what I'm saying? So I'm in Randy's room. And I'm just, like, telling him, like, how I feel. And then Randy's like, he just looked at me after I got done from saying what I was saying. And then he says, you know, the problem is the fact that, you know, you haven't made friends with the worst outcome. You know, you got to made friends with the worst outcome. You got to make friends with the worst outcome. He said, you got to understand that you can go in this fight and it can be the most embarrassing fight of your life. You can go in and get knocked out in seconds and you can be highlights of you all over. He said, but the sun

will still rise. There will be another day. You will live the fight again and your family will still love you. will be another day. You will live the fight again and your family will still love you. He says, so what you need is perfect, right? It's perfect. And those were, those were the things like, it's funny that when he put it in that perspective, I got to see the fight for what it was, you know? And once he started speaking in that terms and he said, you just got to make friends is the worst outcome. And I really started to think of that. And then when I walked out of his room for the next several hours, because that's when, you know, it was the night before the fight and all my family members had left and went home, then I was just alone with my thoughts. And damn it, I went in that mirror and I stared in the

mirror and I tried to find that piece of me that was afraid. And I talked to myself in a mirror and I cursed at myself in a mirror and I just, I just got it out I just did like an emotional vomit to myself in front of the mirror and just kind of like let it all out what I was afraid of to the point where you know it kind of started to dissipate that the feelings of like Jedi training I'm telling you. It was like that. It was like that. And then like once I started to just like really, you know, really accept that anything could happen, you know, my body just started to just relax in a way that it hadn't relaxed up until that point, you know. And then the next morning when I woke up, I was still feeling good, but I was still a bit nervous. But what made me feel better even then was we do a shakeout every morning. And when we do a shakeout, you just kind

of like remind the body what we're here for, right? You hit Mitch, you bring your heart rate up. So the first time you bring your heart rate up is not when you're going to fight. So we bring a heart rate up early in the morning. And I was hit and miss with Winkler, John. And that's when he said, you know what, you're going to hit him with this overhand, right. And I'm not going to be able to get in there. I'm not going to get it. So that's what I was going into the fight on fight night with. All these little things you're sprinkling in, man. I'm not sure you get through that fight without going through this, you know,

and that, and it's a beautiful thing to, to be able to recall that and sort of relive it. And you close this pre-fight video package by saying something interesting you say in my mind i see it as a straight out brawl and we are just getting after it now the reason why i bring that up rashad is because you had such success wrestling michael bisping the fight before although chuck liddell is known at this point for being an incredibly good takedown defense to protect the, you know, the volatility of that right hand. How much were you thinking game plan wise coming in of whether

you were even going to need to wrestle? Because spoiler alert, this fight goes one and a half rounds. You don't shoot once. So was it, when you say that in that video, you meant it straight out brawl the whole way? Yeah, there was no game plan to take him down. You know, we waited out and we thought maybe I could get him down. But what it could lead me, you know, as far as like trying to go for a takedown and being tired on my feet with Chuck Liddell would have been a bad move. So we were not going to take any takedowns unless one just like clearly presented itself. Very, very interesting stuff.

People would think maybe that would be a strategy for you, but you didn't need it. Liddell closed with quote, it's going to be real, real hard for him to make me uncomfortable in a fight. I enjoy a fight. So if he can make me uncomfortable, that would be a feat. Well, actually, you made him very comfortable. Rashad, you put him to sleep. We'll get to that in a second, though. Hey, betting odds for this one.

Look, Vegas respected Chuck even late into his 30s, Rashad. He was the betting favorite over everyone, even the loss to Rampage, even the loss to Keith Jardine. He became the underdog for that Vonderlei fight, a slight underdog at plus 135. But by winning it, he was back to being in the minus. Minus 215 he opened against you as the favorite it would close at minus 220 you would open as plus 175 and close as high as plus 215 so two to one here against you rashad they are favoring the puncher with the experience

and here we go with the ring walks rashad you come out wearing a t-shirt with the mugshot of a white guy straight on and then sideways. Who the heck is this? Is this something I missed? That's Bill Gates. Okay, okay. That is Bill Gates. That's Bill Gates when he got arrested in Albuquerque

and I was part of their campaign where they were trying to compete with Apple and it was when they were like, they were trying to compete with Apple. And it was when they were like, I'm a PC. Right. And I did a commercial around there when I was like, I'm a PC and I take people down. I'm a PC and I crush people in real life. We're all a PC, inseparably one. You got a problem with that? If you look at, you might be able to Google that commercial. I do remember. I remember the PC line. Now that you say it, I didn't pick up on the Bill Gates in the moment there.

They dub over your walkout song because of rights issues. And they put a very generic, rappy, jazzy track over it. What did you walk out to that night? I walked out to a song that really meant something to me because it really exemplified the moment that I was in. It was called The Point of No Return by Immortal Technique, because I knew that no matter what happened, the place that I was from, it doesn't exist anymore because everything after this moment would be different and I needed to accept it. So this was part of me just like making friends with the worst outcome, you know? Well, it worked because I always look at things like this, like your expression when you hit the tunnel and you came out, you know, void of emotion, but not in a scared way or a scary psychopath way. You just

came out ready for business is what it looked like Rashad yeah um what what happened was like you know so I was so nervous for this fight and um I I just wasn't thinking like how I normally think so uh when I got to the locker room I was so busy thinking about the fight that I forgot to pack everything that I needed. And one of the things that I forget to pack was a cup. I forgot my freaking cup. I didn't have a cup. And it was crazy. I'm like two fights away from coming up.

And I'm like, Coach, you're going to get mad at me, but I forgot my cup. And then we were too far away or too close to my fight for somebody to go and run and get it. So I had to use somebody else's cup. Oh, God. Wait. So whose cup and was it used or clean? What's the deal here? It was a used cup, freshly worn cup, still wet, dripping wet cup from Nate Myercourt.

Oh, my God, Rochette. Was he the same size? I mean, this is what people want to know I guess it was a one size fits all here all right I mean he was 185 so I just had to throw the junk in there and just it felt if listen it felt absolutely gross because for one I wasn't I wasn't sweating and I get this drenched wet like like you can wring it out cup and I had to put that joint on and had to say, these are details you could only get on storytime with sugar.

You pissed your pants in that tough finale fight. No one knew it during it. And now we're using somebody's used cup in the biggest fight of your life. But I love it. Hey BC, this is about how much do you want to win, baby? If you want to win, you better wear a pissy cup. Yup. Yeah. I was just reached right in you better wear a pissy cup. Yep. Yeah.

I was just reached right in. Marquardt took it right out. All right. It's go time. It's time to win, brother. As you walk to the cage, Rogan says you are very dynamic in your movement. You're a dynamic wrestler and you're a good striker. Rogan, of course, mentions Keith Jardine's role and having your back saying you guys

aren't the same fighter, but he had a lot of success. Question. Why the taped ankles for this fight I always felt like I moved better with my ankles taped you know and that's one thing that I wish that I was able to continue to do them but so many commissions they have a problem with that you know because I have the way I move if I don't have my ankles taped I feel like I I roll them, you know? So it kind of, it kind of messes up my movement and it kind of gave me an extra spring being able to have those, those ankles, those ankles taped. And it allowed me to kick without feeling like I'm going to hurt myself,

you know? So I loved having my ankle tape. And when I have my ankles tape, I was very springy. Yeah. It's an icon. It's sort of a weird, iconic look. Like I always know it's the Chuck fight. Cause I see the taped ankles, you know, at first glance, when I, when Iy. Yeah, it's sort of a weird iconic look. Like, I always know it's the Chuck fight because I see the taped ankles, you know, at first glance when I see the tape. Chuck enters from the tunnel with a creepy smile and that long-ass stare that he does, the Iceman Supreme stare. Huge pop, Rashad, from Phillips Arena here, the home of the Atlanta Hawks.

He's the crowd favorite, no question. Although, Rashad, there are a lot of black people in Atlanta. I feel like you should have had a big crowd here. Is that just me being a weirdo here? No, you're right though. But here's the thing about like back then, like the black folks, they wasn't really on to MMA, right? Like, like they are right now or starting to be more towards, you know? So at the time, you know, they knew, you know, but they weren't really on it on like they would be,

you know, later on. Pre-fight narrative from Goldberg is that Liddell realized he wasn't in elite shape when he lost to Keith Jardine. He fixed that for the Vonderlei fight. That fight went three rounds. It was a war. Chuck has been working on his sprawl in anticipation of fighting you thinking that the wrestling is coming. A lot of talk of best shape. He's been in, in some time and Chuck, even though he's, even though Chuck's music is, um, you know,

dubbed for the sake of fight pass, you can still hear that DMX in the background, the iconic, uh, when you hear that Rashad, because you are now in the cage or maybe the prep point at this point, as Chuck hits the arena, you hear the screams and you hear RIP DMX. That's a moment, right? That's, you know, he's coming. He's coming for you, brother.

All right. It's an iconic moment. If you've been a Chuck Liddell fan, you start to realize at that moment, like, yo, I'm fighting Chuck Liddell. Like, that's when I started to realize the magnitude of what was about to happen. And it's crazy to think that, right? Because like at different phases of this fight, I had a dose of, yo, you're fighting Chuck Liddell. You know, it was one at the weigh-in and then there was another one once, you know, he was walking out. And then I look up and I see my name, Rashad Evans.

And then I see the little banner that's above, you know, the arena. You know how it says Rashad Evans versus Chuck Liddell? So said my name I'm like oh joint and I said Chuck Liddell and I'm just like wow I'm really fighting Chuck Liddell and he's walking out to DMX and I was like this is insane so like I was just I was just in the moment I was so in the moment when his music came on I started rocking with it i started rocking you know yeah i was dancing to it uh chuck got a second giant pop upon entering the cage you're dancing there you're dressed in black trunks with a few um sponsorships on there chuck is in his typical blue with the white drip iceman trucks trunks but he's got the words pain the word pain spelt out

and red letters across his ass cheeks. So he's ready to bring it here. Rashad. They bring up a graphic of your strengths. Division one college wrestler looks for the slam. It says, and quick hands. So that's,

as we head into the tail of the tape here, Liddell, 38 Rashad, 28. He has a six foot two height advantage to your five 11. And the reach is nearly the same one inch in the favor of Liddell., Rashad 28. He has a 6'2 height advantage to your 5'11", and the reach is nearly the same, one inch in the favor of Liddell. Herb Dean, the referee, did that matter at that point at all to you? No, but Herb was always a good referee.

His instruction was always clear, and he always made sure he went out the way to make sure that I understood everything that was going to happen in the outgun, so I felt comfortable. And that's one thing I can always say about her. Her always make sure that if he's roughing you, you feel comfortable with everything. All right. Your ring announcement from Bruce buffer starts in Rashad.

This is where we just straight up call you out for being weird. You're really going at those nipples, bro. It's like tuning Tokyo over here. What's happening here. I'm going at them because here's the thing about it. I'm trying to knock this nervousness off, but I don't know if the camera really caught me. I don't know if the camera

caught me. It caught you twice with the titty twisters, bro. I know, but I had to get into the mode because at that time, it was time for Sugar to perform and I needed to just get over this. Sugar's a freak. Sugar needs to get warmed up, you know? Hey, sugar is sexual chocolate.

He was feeling himself, man. No wonder that lady was screaming in the crowd all night. All right. Mix of cheers and boos for you. Big, big pro Chuck Liddell crowd, of course. Chuck gets announced. I mean, look, nobody, you know, again, very few fighters have ever had that connection with the crowd.

It feels like a fun moment. They span the crowd, Chuck. A lot of white people, a lot of Affliction t-shirts, a lot of tap-out t-shirts. This is 2008, mind you. We head to the stare down. You're singing as the two of you are respectfully eyeing each other. We do touch gloves.

What are you singing right there? DMX still? No, it was the Immortal Technique song. Okay okay it was a mortal technique song you know uh the point in every turn and all right go ahead we we touch gloves we get it going here in round one rashad the crowd is hyped they are so hyped that they're not chanting something but they're so hyped that there's almost a chorus of just sound that's building around here. Do you remember this crowd and this, you know, as a pay-per-view main event? I mean, it's a giant fight in comparison to any other fight you'd had. Yeah, the crowd was deafening to the point where it made it really hard to hear like simple instruction.

You know, I really had to focus on what the game plan was because I couldn't really hear my corner. You know, I mean, I didn't really even know what corner they were in. It was so loud. Well, excuse me. We start off with with really the same pattern we'd be in for the first few minutes of the open this fight. Chuck's stalking you with that right hand. You're staying on the outside on your bicycle, kind of pumping jabs, but more of just, you know, range finders, you know, you had to

believe he's going to do, I mean, you know, him and Dan Henderson, they tell you ahead of time, right? I'm coming in there with this thing and I'm going to keep it cop the whole cock the whole time. The crowd's waiting to see, is he going to crack you first? Are you going to take him down first? What are you remember feeling in game planning for in those first few minutes? Well, I remember just, um, trying to get it, trying to get his timing down, right? Because, you know, whenever you fight anybody, you got to kind of see their speed. You got to see how fast it calls the distance. You got to try to figure all that out without sustaining too much damage. So, um, my reads on him, making my reads on him, seeing how fast his right hand was coming and just trying to figure it out. But more or less,

even though I was trying to figure out what he was doing, I was making it so it was hard for him to really nail me down. So he was really starting to chase me and really start to just overextend himself. And that's what we wanted. We wanted to be like the matador and the bull, you know, I'm the smaller fighter and I was really low crunched down to the ground. If you notice that as well too. So it made it even harder for him to punch me because he had to punch down. And if you ever punched down at something, it's a lot harder than punching at your range because missing is harder to recover from. So being that I was nice and low, it made it hard for him to punch me. And then I would just swing out these left hooks and I would catch him and it would just piss him off because it was just like a little nick, you know, and it was just enough to frustrate

him, but not enough to hurt him. It was just a little nick to just be like, to enrage him so he couldn't see nothing but just wanting to knock me out. Well, I think you guys indirectly pissed off the fans just a little bit because they were so hyped from the beginning. But outside of you sort of just pumping your left hand, you know, quickly, nervously, lazily, we didn't get an actual punch thrown for the first 37 seconds until Liddell stepped forward, missed with the right hand. He tries another one at 411 and you duck out nicely and exit to your left.

So we're learning right away that it's not going to be easy for him. You got quicker feet. You're willing to circle on the outside and you're not at this point going to sit down and trade with him. Rogan jumps in to reiterate the Goldie point from earlier about your comments that he's old. Not only pissed Chuck off, but Joe reports that Chuck took it out on his sparring partners all camp. So he's ready to kill you right here at 344.

Mike Goldberg refers to you as Rashard Evans. So we got that going for us. That's also Rashad when you switch to Southpaw briefly. Now, from my calculations, you switched three times in this fight. You never actually threw a punch, though. How much did you expect that to be a look that you were going to show Chuck? I trained for it. You know, I wanted to really throw some combinations for him from the left side,

but I just never felt comfortable doing it. And when it came down to it, what I seen was, I seen that every single time I went to my left stance, it made him had to make the adjustment. So whenever I, I would force a reset, I would keep doing it because forcing a reset, it bought me time and it bought, you know, it just would allow me a little bit more time to, to set a trap or just kind of get him even more frustrated because he had to respect the stance switch because he didn't know what was coming well you had to know that it's it's i mean he had a left hand he had a left hook that was good but it's either the overhand right or the

right uppercut i mean that's what chuck did so it's like you had to know okay i can't stand and trade with him i can't stand still but i think all your constant moving and resetting to your point really started to work. At 330, though, Chuck lands his first punch, a decent jab, but the crowd starts to realize at this point, 90 seconds in, that nothing's really happening. You can hear some whistling, but they're getting a little impatient, but I've circled this moment, 324 the first round. You let go your first big right hand attempt and Rashad it would look like the punch that you would go to finish him with but Liddell turned and almost did a Mayweather shoulder roll and the punch get grazed off his shoulder as you followed through and I couldn't tell if you actually hit his face or not do you remember that giving you any kind of confidence that that's

there you just missed it yeah I um, I didn't catch him clean with it, but what he felt was he felt like the power to it. Right. And then after he felt the power to it, he was a little bit more cautious on how he pursued because he knew that I had that power. So he was a little bit more cautious and he allowed me to, after that point, uh, be in the center of the octagon a little bit. You know what I'm saying? Like I would, instead of just chasing around, after that, I got to be the center of the octagon. And he was on the outside a little bit.

So it kind of changed things up a little bit because after I threw that, he knew that, okay, he's got a little bit of power too. Yeah, and up to that point, to your point, he had been the aggressor. Here's where it starts to switch in a, in a nice early moment for Liddell at three 14, he settles into more of a counter punching role. Instead of going over your jab, he counters your jab with sort of this right cross from underneath your left hand that catches you on the chin as he grazes by. In fact, Rashad, it looked like it, it like it stunned you enough, maybe not stunned you, but woke you up enough that you responded with very exaggerated shoulder movement

to the point where Goldie goes, this is the kind of stuff that pissed Matt Hughes off during the Ultimate Fighter season. So we're already back on Rashad as a showboater again, but was that in response to the fact that he did catch you? Yeah, it was, you know, that was a good punch too. It was, it was a nice little zinger and it was one of those punches that kind of gave me a little bit of confidence because, you know,

I kind of felt like I took a decent punch from Chuck then, you know what I'm saying? Like it was one that I felt, but it was also one that kind of worried me a bit too, because I didn't see it. And the reason why I didn't see it is not because I didn't see it take off was because I thought it was another punch. And usually you can tell a punch, just how the shoulder opens up, right? When somebody wants to throw a hook, their shoulders opens up a certain kind of way. And you can see that as a hook. Well, with Chuck Liddell, all of his punches open up the same way. So it's like a change up in baseball. It can open up like a hook,

but then turn into a straight cross about time it gets to your face. And that's one thing that I had to like take an immediate notice of right during the fight and had to take some real time. Like, yo, this is a lot different than when we train. Nobody said anything about this. You know, it was like one of those type of things very sneaky shot under your jab very tight landing on the inside to your chin and now we hit basically the halfway point of the first round i think rashad this probably surprised a lot of people it was largely a chess match you hit a nice kick uh front kick to the body which again offset his rhythm then he comes

lunging forward with a right hand at 227 you sidestep that again so your lateral movement on point you miss a very tight short right cross at 156 Rashad that I thought could have been a big money punch but what it did is this is where the crowd is finally like okay we've had enough of this chess match we got straight up boozed for the lack of uh thunder. Does that affect you? Do you hear that at this point in the fight when you are dialed and locked in? You know,

uh, I heard it for sure. I heard it, but you got to remember at the time, that's all I have ever been was booed anyway. So for me to get a boo, it meant nothing, but I knew it mattered to him.

I knew it mattered to him when he heard the booze, I knew it would bother him. And I know that like, I seen it with other fighters, you know when he heard the booze, I knew it would bother him. And I know that like, I seen it with other fighters, you know, when they got booed, they would, they would do something because they didn't want to get booed. But for me, I didn't care if I got booed. I was used to getting booed. Yeah. And you, you were used to anyone who watched our, uh, listened to our story time with Rashad through the ultimate fighter felt like the company was, everybody was against you through that. and you persevered and you won.

Well, at one 34, you get another nice leg kick and you were very elusive. Again, two more right hands. You are ducking. You're seeing them coming in with ease. And then we get some more of this exaggeration from,

from Rashad. You're getting some, I don't know if it's like a level change fake, but you're kind of squatting down as you mentioned. And it actually leads to rogan saying i can't figure out if rashad is trying to lure chuck in or if he's just showboating all right okay we get it guys all right he's the black guy he's the entertainer no he's a damn good fighter and he's keeping chuck off rhythm your mother after i mean come on yeah but that's but

that's that's what early that's what the early uh ufc know what I'm saying? They didn't really, you know, they didn't really, you know, they had that kind of biased commentating back then. You know, it was just, you know, if a black guy was good, it's not because he actually had, you know, technique. It's because he was an athlete. If you go back and you watch a lot of those commentaries, they would talk about you know whether it's chuck liddell or my i mean not chuck liddell brothers um uh who was josh koscheck or

myself it was always because they were an athlete not that we weren't athletes but we were we were we were athletes but we were just more than just athletes right but um yeah it was it was just it was just the temperature how things were back then well you know Liddell's the bigger star and the the broadcast can only see what they see in real time but interesting sequence here at one minute and eight seconds of the first round you land another one of these looping right hands which would be a you know a foreshadowing of the finishing punch only this one Rashad Liddell was able to turn away from it just at the point of impact. So you touched him, but you didn't get him out of there.

And not only did the broadcasters miss that, we got Goldie talking about how Liddell's counter jab looked pretty stiff there. Again, do you feel like you are right there to catching him with that go home punch? I do. Like, I feel like I was really surprised at how surprised at how, um, how I was able to connect, you know, and it all started with me with that slap and left hook. And once I was able to catch him with that slap on left hook, um, and he started just over pursuing, I was surprised at how much I was just able to just to just catch him with these shots. They, the punch that just kind

of, you know, left his visual because they were so wide and looping, and the next, you know, boom, they'll come back and catch him. So I was surprised. It just goes to show you timing and precision and, like, you know, these two right hands that you've missed that we've talked about, they look a lot like the one you finished him with, only the one you would go to finish him with was the perfect time as he's leaning in to punch with you. So, you know, he's just – you're just missing twice.

You would get him that third time. But at 46 seconds, first mention on the broadcast, this by Rogan, that Rashad has yet to shoot, go for any type of standing clinch or a takedown. And then Goldie reveals something that I couldn't figure out rewatching it, Rashad. A cut below the right eye of Chuck Liddell on his cheek. Do you remember what caused that? Yeah, it was these slapping left hooks. You know, it was like these left hooks that I was throwing, they were so fast, and it's really hard to see.

Like I said, look, they're so fast. Look at me pat myself on the back. But they were fast, right? I didn't mention them yet, and it looks like Rogan and Goldie missed them, so they're pretty damn fast, Rashad. They're really fast, but they were happening in movement. So, like, a lot of times where it looked like nothing was happening, I wasn't connecting, I was actually connecting with these left hooks,

and it didn't take much of it to leave a mark on his face. All right, 22 seconds to go in round one. Remind you up to this point, you've just nicked him. He had that one good right hand on you. chuck liddell corners you against the fence and it looks like we're gonna have to fight for the first time only chuck misses with an overhand right above your jab he tried to time that he came right back though with a short uppercut underneath it sneaky little punch there rashad you would try to sit down and answer him you missed a big right hand but the threat of that right hand allowed you to escape was that a bit of an oh shit moment where he missed over your jab but then comes right back under it we don't normally see a a left uppercut

there from Liddell yeah I mean that's what I'm saying like Chuck's punches were very hard to see um and I didn't really feel comfortable by going toe-to-toe with him. So whenever he came in that range and we were in the 50-50 range where he can hit me and I can hit him, I was looking for maybe hitting two or three punches and then getting the hell out of dodge. Like I was not going to try to stand in there and try to be like, oh yeah, you hit me because I knew at some point he would catch me because I wasn't seeing his punches.

I truly wasn't seeing them. I'll have to tell you, though, you know, I don't necessarily remember what my emotions were watching it lie. I remember the finish, not this, but re-watching this first round, it looked like he's still the alpha dog, even though you're doing a good job avoiding him. The story of this fight is Chuck chasing you and Chuck starting to catch up. That's what I'm feeling as we go to the end of round one here.

Is that unfair, Rashad? No, it's really fair because at that point, he started to get the timing. He's starting to get when he should go because it's like a game of double dutch, right? You got to know when to jump in, and he was starting to understand when to jump in, and he was starting to fight his perfect game because Chuck is a counter fighter, and he does that by putting pressure on somebody. He puts that pressure on the person. And then when a person feels smothered, they open up with the ill-advised combination, not really being ready, but just kind of throwing a punch because the presence is there.

Then he catches them with a counter shot. And I felt him doing that to me. So that's why I would like throw maybe two or three and just try to run out of there as fast as I could. It's funny. He's 38. He looks like an old man now, but he's still sneaky with these shots. And at, at the buzzer to end round one, Chuck tried an ill-advised running head kick in which you saw it coming.

So you stepped to the side. Herb Dean was so nervous. It was going to hit you after the horn that he jumped in and kind of intercepted it. I thought Herb was going to get a KO there. That was a wild finisher shot. See, that's why, that's why I like Herb, man thought Herb was going to get KO'd there. That was a wild finisher shot. See, that's why I like Herb, man. Herb was down like that. Herb would take a kick for you, man.

But, yeah, man, when Chuck threw that kick, I swear, like, you feel – like sometimes when somebody throws a punch or a combination or throws something at you and it misses, you may be able to – you can tell how much power it had on you just by the wind that goes by you. And that joint has some serious wind. I felt out the words. And I'm like, man, if he would have caught me with that one, it would have been a bad one. It was so much wind on that kick. Well, Chuck sits down on the stool. We got to zoom in on his cut. Rogan says, you know,

we didn't see that Rashad connected with any real solid punches, but sometimes it's the grazing ones that do the most damage to your point about that short left hand. And then coach wink gets in your face as keep moving and making him miss. You are pissing him off. Interesting advice. Considering Joe Rogan and Goldie would instantly shit on it, jump in and go, Hey, I'm not sure he needs to make Chuck miss.

He's going to have to land something or he may not be able to win these rounds. Rashad, your thoughts, listening back on that. It's funny because they didn't know the game plan. Right. But, um, you know, it's, it's, you know, in this fight game, there's so many different ways and so many different, I guess, uh, strategies to, to, to be employed. And it's not always about just going in there and meeting fire where fire. Sometimes you got to be cagey. Sometimes you got to be able to be a little bit more strategic in there to find the openings that you, you know, that you can.

Well, to the point of their criticism, you know, I looked at anyone I could find. MMA Junkie was doing a live blog. They had it 10-9 Liddell after round one, a close round. Again, he probably 10-9 Chuck. But did you feel like that was a good round for you from this standpoint? You know, you'd go on to knock him out the next round. Was your game plan, I'm going to catch him with a counter and I'm going to finish him? Or at some point, considering this is still a three-round pay-per-view main event, do you feel like, you know, I got to get on my horse now in round two and do something?

No, I felt everything was going to plan i felt as if like you know i i've um i've over exceeded what we plan to do that round you know i didn't really get into any um excuse me i didn't really sustain any bad punches or getting any scary situation and i was able to land some shots and more importantly i was able to make a miss. And he was getting pissed. And he was chasing me around the cage. And, like, you could just see the look in his eyes. He was just fuming because he couldn't catch me.

All right. Chuck's Corner tells him, be patient. Keep doing exactly what you're doing. We stand opposite each other before the start of round two. And it says, Joe Rogan jumps in and said, Rashad looking to put on a show still. Chuck would like to put an end to the dancing. Man, these guys just cannot appreciate, okay? They cannot appreciate showmanship, getting one hyped up. Hey, the dancing prevented Chuck from landing that there missile.

All right, guys. Here we go. Round two inside leg kick from Liddell at four 29. And he nearly lands a huge right hand to follow, but I liked the way you sort of sat down underneath it, flurried your way out Rashad. This was action picking up because he found a way to kind of corner you and put you in a spot where you had to fight your way out. Yeah. After that happened in the first round, I knew that if I'm going to leave, I can't leave how I left the last time because in my mind,

I'm still remembering that kick that went over my head. So I'm like, I gotta be able to start throwing at the end of these combinations. And also at this point is where I started to, to realize that if I'm not finishing with my left hand, then he's able to come over the I'm not finishing with my left hand, then he's able to come over top and hit me with his right hand. So I was trying to always finish with my left, and the only way I knew how to finish with my left is just kept throwing combinations.

Well, this had to make Chuck Liddell happy because finally he got you into a spot where you were going to sit and fight because a second later, you guys are back at it. This is a legitimate exchange. Not a ton landing, but you did, you were able to, you tried a three punch combo. The only thing you landed was a right cross to finish it. You had your feet planted in, you were not there to run. You may have ducked out of that first sequence, but you sat down, both of you let go three punch combos. I don't think he touched you

at all. Did you feel like you got a lot on that right cross? Yeah, I felt like I got some, I felt like I got a pretty good, pretty good catch in that, in that punch right cross. Yeah, I felt like I got some, I felt like I got a pretty good, pretty good catch in that, in that punch sequence. You know, I'm thinking like this, have you ever seen a dog get backed in a corner by, I mean, a cat get backed in a corner by a dog? Oh yeah. That was me. That was me, Chuck Liddell. Like I'm like, like a cat, like a little cat, feline cat, just trying to make sure that I stayed moving the whole time but when I caught him with that right hand I was like okay I can do this I can settle down a little bit in the pocket because I was fundamentally like sound enough to to be able to cover my bases and still rip some punches

well you can see the frustration on Chuck being unable to hit you clean at the four minute mark he misses a somewhat weak right cross he's kind kind of off balance. You Connor with almost an exaggerating bun bugs, bunny, like change up looping shot, not the one you would finish him with. You missed it, but it was uncharacteristic from the 15 seconds later though, at three 44, we get a leaping left hook, right hand follow from Rashad that forces Chuck to like slide and reset his feet um you escape out of trouble right there Rashad I wrote down on my notes here you are making him skip to your loo where did this sort of leaping left hook come from well I mean I was just starting to grow in confidence like I've landed a couple shots now he's missed a couple shots he's hit me with a

couple shots and I'm still there so as the fight's going on I'm starting to pick up confidence and not only that I'm starting to notice that he's respecting my punches you know so so he's now starting to respect my punches he's not trying to walk through anything he's taking notice that I'm kind of I'm cracking a little bit and now he's weary you know he's kind of being a little bit weary coming inside so my confidence started to grow and I'm like man I can I can catch this dude well your confidence is growing and he's slowing down it's only round two here but you can see a mixture of frustration and and fatigue setting in at 333 a nice short left hook from Rashad you just missed with the right hand coming over the top

and that causes Chuck to take another sort of step to the side he's slowing down he's chasing suddenly 10 seconds later rashad you barely miss another big right hand in which rogan goes rashad is getting more confident here so it's visually we can see it so this is where chuck you know fight or flight right he's gonna fight so 310 we get some huge stalking from Liddell sets up side by side moment to sort of um you've side by side moment l1 and r1 to sort of get out of it Chuck Lance attempts a looping right hand from hell after two power jabs he just can't catch up with you Rashad he just cannot catch up with you yeah I mean the bounce, the bounce that I had being able to go in and out and also being able to present him with something that he had to respect.

It was just bothering him to the point where he was just like, look, I just want to get it over with. I want to be able to just, to, to just knock him out. And you can see him like just starting to be more like more and more on unpatient with it. Like I just seen it in his face. Like he, he was really showing the intention in his face that he was, that he was trying to punch me. And the more so he was showing me that he was really trying to land that right hand. And I was thinking like, you know,

I kept seeing him just looking to land that right hand because Chuck has like a thing that he does with his upper body where he kind of like almost starting to pre-turn it before he actually throws a punch and I was like okay he's he's looking for that right hand well all this tension that we're building right here it's going to lead to an explosion and here it comes one second later Rashad you pumped a jab then you pawed one and then you came over you you caught Rashad, you caught Chuck at the perfect point, frustration, you know, fatigue setting in. He had just missed a right hand. He sort of in between his movements and you uncork a right hand from the deep dark depths. Talk me through this one, Rashad.

It is to this day still one of the most brutal, one of the most iconic one punch finishes in UFC history well I seen him wanting to come with the right hand and I was thinking like before all of that sequence happened was you know he's coming with that right hand I got to make sure I finished with my left punch so all I was thinking about was just throwing that left hand so um there's a thing that that that coach Winklerohn would tell me all the time. He'll tell me, you know, throw when they throw, he says, throw on throw, right? So when I see him just throw, I just throw a combination. The minute I just see the, the, the, the punch come,

I go at the same time, no matter what punch he's doing, I'm just going to go. So I seen him going with that right hand. And as soon as I seen him with the right hand, I just let off with mine as fast as I could. But I was thinking the whole time, let me just land with the left hook. So what I really wanted more than anything was I was really trying to hit him with the right, the left hook. The right hand was just something fast to throw to kind of get me over to the left hook side.

But I really thought I was going to clean them up with the left hook. I was going to say Rashad, if you had missed with this looping right hand, not only would you have had to deal with that right uppercut that he had thrown at the same time, which didn't get there in time, but that left hand that you had coming over the top was going to destroy him if the right hand didn't. I mean, you had sat down, you had committed that, you had threw the uncorking right one, which finished him, but that left thing coming across meant serious business.

It wouldn't be necessary because I think he bit on that first pump jab. I think it was the first pump jab that started to get him in the early coil up. You saw it coming, second punch, and then by the time that right uppercut's coming, and look, when you landed those two right hands in round one, which looked like this punch, it wasn't when he was punching. It was, he was able to see it better.

He was able to just get out of the way or just get nicked with it. Or that first time it had grazed his shoulder because you were willing to punch with him here. As you said, I mean, it was was his guard was down it was masterpiece theater i mean rashad that's when somebody's the most vulnerable right when they are loading up to come at you think manny pacquiao the fourth fight with marcus it's just perfect timing that pacquiao is leaping in as this right hand counter nails him same thing with mcgregor and aldo you punch together and it so here's the deal.

I'm watching this in the ESPN.com newsroom, a place you'd been many times for making, or sorry, for MMA Live, which this was going on during this time that you had become an analyst for MMA Live there at ESPN.com. And Rashad, this is one of those, not just iconic, but scary.

I mean, I thought you killed Chuck. I was like like you know this is what happens when two alphas get in there and and they're not trying to play for the decision like they're going for it that was one of those words just i just remember being like you know i don't know if i could keep watching this kind of stuff because like that was like that's real man that's you know i mean like that's that's the real shit right there that's as real as it gets as the ufc slogan used to be i mean rashad that's some real shit you you like the ghost floated away after you finished him i mean that is a warrior who was willing to risk it

all to try to win it all and he risked it all and you took it all away from him there i mean rashad that's a dream moment only it's not a head kick to sean salmon it's a pay-per-view main event that would lead to the title shot in which you one punch knocked out the biggest star in the sports history up to that point what is that euphoric next five seconds like after after you connect, you jump in to try to finish. Herb Dean weighs it off. What the hell are you feeling? Man, when I threw that overhand right and it connected, if it just felt like a good swing on the baseball, like I knew I had good contact and it really felt like nothing. It was just like a really smooth feeling. Like it was like, it felt really smooth, but I remember hitting him and just watching him fall away out of the corner of my eye. And I say the corner of

my eye, because at that point I had swung the left hook and I see him fall out of my view and I'm looking and he's falling out of my view that way. And I'm hearing my corner yell at me to go uncover and get them. And this all happened in a split second. And this is the craziest thing. Like when you're, when your adrenaline is going, it's like the whole world slows down like the matrix, like everything would just slow down. It felt like it took me forever to come out of that left hook. I'm just like, man, I remember still being like this, like, oh my gosh, he's, he's fallen.

And he was just like falling. And I'm like, okay, okay. And as soon as I finished the left hook, I went to cover him and he was gone. And I was just in shock. I was in shock because he dropped as if like he got shot. He dropped like he got shot. And then the sound of it was just like, it was a brutal sound. But what got me more than anything was just the deafening silence of the arena. That's the hush and the fear of the crowd was like, you actually can hear shrieks. So what you hear, you can hear the punch. You hear Rogan do his typical scream.

He yells, oh my God, god how cold goldie jumps in and says big uppercut thanks goldie it was a big uppercut there huh um but you can start to hear people like oh my god i think this is the difference you remember this 2008 so you're getting a lot of at that point me a big boxing guy who watches ufc but is a big boxing guy you don't get knockouts this crisp, clean, and violent in boxing, maybe because of the eight ounce or 10 ounce gloves, right? This is four ounce gloves on the money where, like you said, I mean, he's done. I mean, he is a bag of bones. It is, you know, both guys swinging for the fences. What a moment. But I think in hindsight here,

you know, as Herb Dean flips Chuck over to try to wake him up, you're not celebrating. You're looking calm. You look a little bit of that, like, cool assassin vibe. But until you went into that celebratory dance, which we can get to in a second, you looked almost pained. Was there a legitimate fear at this point that like. I mean, you know, I thought Manny pacquiao got killed by one of my more markets with that punch right did you have legitimate fear like i may just killed this guy yeah i was kind of i was kind of nervous at first i went to go and check on him but uh what made me nervous was just like when i went to go check on them they were like pushing me away like go go go away go

away they didn't want me to go near them and they didn't want me to go near them because they didn't want the cameras to follow me they don't want no cameras on Chuck. So that kind of made me, that kind of made me feel like, oh my gosh, this is something serious, you know? And the look, the look in Herb's eyes was kind of, was kind of worrisome. You know how like you can see like a panic in somebody's eyes and he's like waving people to come in real quick. And I'm just like, oh my gosh, what happened? You know? And then I see everybody started running to the cage really fast to, to try to, you know, get Chuck to, to, to get Chuck up because he was out for a minute. And I was like, Whoa,

it was, it was, it was unreal. It was unreal. Well, you, you eventually settle into a celebration mode and, and Luke Thomas calls it the Fred Sanford, the fake heart attack thing. It's his favorite thing that you've ever done. Was that just spontaneous in the moment? That's the biggest win of your career. This is basically winning a championship. Yeah, it was spontaneous. You know, I was a big Sanford and Son fan.

And one of my biggest things that I used to love when he used to say, I'm coming to join you. This is the big one, Elizabeth. I'm coming to join you. And the big one Elizabeth I'm coming to join you and that's what I was feeling like I feel like this is the big one Elizabeth I didn't do it I didn't knock that child down oh my god that I was feeling like I just I just went into my Fred Sanford moment and uh it was it was heart-stopping man it really was Goldie yells what an upset and you know betting wise two to one it was an upset technically And, you know, betting wise, two to one, it wasn't upset. Technically Rogan yells like a lightning bolt out of nowhere.

So Rashad, once you, you know, you celebrate your, you see Chuck is sitting up to a degree, but he's still, you know, not in a great, great spirits. Let's be honest. He's still, you know, mangled there. Do you have the, like, the, like your whole life and careers cross, you know, cross in front, do you have one of those full circle? Like I did it like, Oh my God moments. I mean, is it, is that what's going on there? Hell yeah. At that moment, I'm just like, like I arrived, you know, like it was, it was like, how you doing? Nice. You know, like I finally got to meet

a part of myself that I had not yet met before you know because and I say that because um it's it's one thing to show up to a fight and just fight but it's another thing to just kind of you know fight out of out of your your ability yeah I can't even say ability but just yeah at the time it was out of my ability and I didn't really I knew I could fight but I didn't really i knew i could fight but i didn't know i could fight fight you know what i'm saying and i was just like whoa you know i was just like i finally arrived and to arrive like that on an opponent like chuck liddell in the way i delivered uh it was just it was it was breathtaking for me i couldn't i mean i

can't say it enough rashad rare Rare is the victory in UFC history. That's not for a title, but feels, you know, almost more important, right? Like Dustin Poirier stopping Conor McGregor in the rematch, no lightweight title at stake, but it's like the career crowning moment of Poirier's career. This is that to you. I mean, it's just, it's wild, but like, let's be real honest here. Can't nobody tell you nothing after this, right? Like in, in your personal life, in your professional life. I mean,

like you are everything you could have hoped to have been in that moment. I really was, man. I really was. It was, uh, it was such a, it was such a, um, a great feeling and just a great moment in my life. You know, I remember during that time, I think it was like the 10 year reunion from my high school. And I remember just being like, you know, you know, what are these guys going to say when they go back? Like what? You know, probably like there was probably at least one or two girls who weren't into the sugar back then. And, but now they are now.

Oh yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, it was um it was such a it was such a great homecoming you know and I really wanted to fight so well because my father's birthday is September 9th and I fought on September 6th and he passed when I was in uh in high school so I really wanted to just like like this fight going to this fight for me, in high school. So I really wanted to just like, like this fight going into this fight for me, it meant a lot. You know, I really want to go out there and just, and just have a great performance and, um, to go out there and just not like, just to have a great victory. And one that I envisioned was, was, was beyond anything that I ever, ever experienced. All right. That stuff's all great,

but let's talk about the screaming that was going on. And again, anybody who's followed our journey when on the state of combat podcast, RIP on CBS sports, you and I did a lengthy run through the ultimate fighter season finale, all that we got introduced to your lovely ex-wife at that time as being a vocal supporter, but there's a little bit of a mystery here. So here's what happens. You can hear screaming.

And it's not the original shrieks from the crowd of like, is Chuck okay? This is one person screaming. Rogan jumps in and goes, man, I can hear Rashad's wife behind me screaming at the top of her lugs. You can hear her through my microphone. Wow. It sounds, Rashad, like a wounded animal I mean there's just shrieks but then your wife runs into the cage to celebrate and I'm still hearing the shrieks so uh I would go on to hear you on that podcast that you did the week after this fight

with Miss Huffington where you said no that's my sister my wife got a got a hard rap with that what the hell's going on here yeah that was my sister my my oldest sister monyet uh you know she she was a big fan you know she was like a mother to me and um you know when when i whenever i fought she was always in a front row and her and my wife would just feed off each other with that excitement so when i when i knocked, you know, she lost it because she knew what I was facing. She knew how, like, I try not to never let my family know if I'm nervous, you know, because, like, we always do, like, a pre-fight dinner. And the pre-fight dinner, I try to alleviate everybody's fears and just try to make everybody happy for fight day so they don't go you know have that nervous energy all night like I have to have so um you know during the pre-fight dinner she can kind of tell that you know I was I was very nervous so it made her a little extra nervous

and then when I had those kind of results he just couldn't contain himself well Joe was almost upset about it as if it was you know stopping him from doing his job there your sister's screaming but your wife runs in they put the camera on you now we can see you looking at chuck so just for the record at this point chuck is alert he's awake but he's still down so they show you looking at him and then you look into the camera no microphone yet and you say hi mom hi in niagara falls it sounds like you say hi lance and myst Mystic. Is that on point? What were you saying there? I'll say what's up to my brother, Lance. Yeah, my brother Lance.

Okay. Hi, everybody. And then hi, aunt something. And they cut you off there. So you were shouting out some aunt for a shot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Probably my aunt Linda or something like that. Yeah.

I mean, you know, it was an unbelievable moment, man. I just wish that, you know, a lot of my family could have attended. Most of them that couldn't make it made it. But it was such a big win because, I mean, here I am, I'm a Niagara Falls boy, man. I'm from Niagara Falls, New York, you know. And there's not a lot of big names that come out of Niagara Falls or people who've done, you know, things at an extraordinary level to come from Niagara Falls. So to be one of those people who come out of Niagara Falls when it was, you know, there's so much talent in Niagara Falls too. The whole Niagara Falls region has a lot of talent, but a lot of people just don't make it out the area.

And to be the one to make it out of the area and to be able to perform the way I did. It just meant so much to me. Now, is where John Jones is from, is that Niagara Falls area? Is that more Rochester? It's Rochester. He's from like the suburbs of Rochester. You know, that's Section 5. I was in Section 6.

He's in Section 5. So we're like both. We're like we're like we're like sectional rivalries. Right. And, you know, both in the armpit of New York, they call us the other New Yorkers call us Canadians. We live so far. Well, I'm on the Wikipedia page of notable people from Niagara Falls and under sports. You better believe there is Rashad Evans, MMA fighter. Also Also Moose Johnston, the former Cowboys fullback. Yeah, he was a Youngstown. Mean Mark Merrow of WWF fame as well right there.

Tara Vanderveer, Kerry Von Erich, the pro wrestler, apparently did some time in that area. All right, Rashad, so it's interview time with Joe Rogan. You slip on your Progenix hat. Did that check ever clear? The progenics hat did the, the, the check did clear, man. This guy, uh, I work with the progenics. He had a good, a good little invention. What he had was he had a protein that you just squeeze off and then it breaks. And then the contents come into the water bottle. So you don't got to worry about, you know,

pouring it in there with a funnel or nothing like that. You just twist this thing on, then it breaks. And then the contents going on. You're not wearing a condom Depot hat for your. I mean, yes, exactly. All right. But what about this? I'm legit here wondering if you're upset. Joe Rogan pulls you in.

And again, your wife is standing off camera, but your sister's still yelling from the crowd. Yet he goes, Rashad, your wife is making so much noise behind us. We can barely concentrate. He's going back to the well again. Did you almost consider, you know, get my wife's name out of your mouth? You know what? At that point, man, I didn't really know who was screaming.

You know, I know that she's quite the screamer. My ex-wife was a big supporter and she would get she would get extremely lathered in these fights, like to the point where she might fight somebody when I fought. That's how that's how much she used to get into it. So, you know, I didn't put it past her. So I was I was like kind of maintaining my my, you know, who was doing what. And so I got a chance to watch later on, but I mean, it was, it was a crazy experience. And the best part about all of

that was this. So before that whole fight happened, I was negotiating my contract with the UFC and I was coming from a tough contract and, um, I wasn't content with what they wanted. They wanted me to fight for. And, um, and we didn't, we didn't get a deal done. So in order to save this fight, Danny White was like, and Lorenzo was like, look, just sign a contract that we sent to you and after this fight we'll make it right so i was like all right we'll see so when i when i fought that when i fought chuck i knocked him out they made it right leverage they made it right yeah finally yeah i mean i i've done the show with you where you're in a main event against tito ortiz making you know 12 and 12 or whatever it was I'm glad they did you right finally yeah I mean here's how right they did me here's how right they did me like the next day

like you know how like you know they used to give backroom bonuses back in the day man they gave me a backroom bonus for like 400k man and at the time at the time, I was making 80 and 80. So it was like the first time I got that big, big money. You know what I'm saying? It was like, oh, man, it feels good to be part of family. And I was like, yes, thank you for making me part of the family. Well, I saw an MMA junkie story about the purses that were reported this night. Chuck Liddell, 500,000.

Rashad Evids, 125. Is that your 80 plus the knockout bonus? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Rich Franklin, who was in the- Okay. So I must have been, if I was 120, so I wasn't even 80 and 80. I was 60 and 60.

Well, you were 125. I wonder if that was 125 plus the knockout bonus on top of that. Yeah. So that means I would have made 120. Well, you were 125. I wonder if that was 125 plus the knockout bonus on top of that. Yeah, so that means I would have made 120. So I was probably like maybe 65 and 65 or something like that. All right. Well, you're in position now. Rich Franklin in the co-main, he knocked out Matt Hamill. He had 100 grand.

But Dan Henderson, who was on this card, made 250 in getting a decision over who some are pal Harris, but you're finally making some cash. You talked in the post-fight interview with Joe about, obviously you have concern for Chuck. You're so happy about this win. And then he asked you, what was your strategy? You said the strategy is going straight for the horns. You can't beat Chuck Liddell. If you try to take him down all day. That's a way to get knocked out or to get tired. I came straight at him with his own game. Yeah, damn right you did, Rashad. You know, in hindsight, that's a – I mean, it turned out great,

but you're right. Had you spent all that time trying to work with him in the clinch, you would have gotten worn down. Yeah, I would have gotten worn down. And Chuck was strong too. Chuck has really good hips, and he have got worn down. And Chuck was strong too. Chuck has really good hips and he's got old man strength. And you know old man strength, like when you're still a boy and you fight somebody who's got old man strength, it's just a different kind of strength because it's

like, it's more dense and the bones feel heavy and all that kind of stuff. Like when you're fighting a grown man, you better not show up with up with no boy strength well the story was certainly you and your ascension joe asked you afterwards if you think a title shot is next you said hopefully it puts me right up there but i'm a patient man i'm just enjoying the ride however long it takes very diplomatic dana at the press conference afterwards would say that you are next against u light heavyweight champion at that moment, Forrest Griffin. Now, interesting side note, I searched on YouTube and a YouTube account called Combat Lifestyle brought up pictures from the UFC 88 after party. And at this after party, you and Forrest Griffin arm around each other, smiling, hot dogging it up. So obviously I don't

think anyone could actually be angry at Forrest Griffin. He's a fantastic human being, but do you remember this? Was it like, Hey buddy, I got you next. Yeah. Let's, let's pose for the photo. Yeah. I remember that, you know, um, which with, with, uh, Forrest Griffin, Forrest was, was like a rabbit for me. And I'm like the dog who's chasing them. You know, uh, when he set the precedent of what it would be for an ultimate fighter to come out on the show and what they would do in the UFC as far

as success is concerned, I had to follow it. Whenever Forrest won, I had to win and I had to keep on following behind Forrest because Forrest was, everybody loved Forrest. Everybody loved him. You know, he was the ultimate fighter. So I wanted a chance to get at Forrest so bad. But at the same time, I had tremendous amount of respect for him because I just seen how hard he worked to get to where he was at. You would get your title shot just three months later. We will get into that in our next episode. Of course, when we look at UFC 92 from December of 2008 in Las Vegas, you were a big moment.

This one just as big though. I went back and tried to find anything I could find of what the narratives were because your Ascension big part of it, but also the legend Chuck takes another big L. So Jesse Holland of MMA Mania wrote, if you're sitting there shaking your head, don't worry. I can hardly believe it myself. Had someone told me during the Ultimate Fighter 2 that both Keith Jardine and Rashad Evans would go on to defeat

the once invincible Liddell, I would have had them taken away by burly men in little white coats. But it's time to face these facts. There's a changing of the guard in the UFC. It's a new generation of fighters who are now making their mark. Whether we're ready for it or not, Chuck certainly wasn't, end quote. Yeah, it kind of sums it up, Rashad. You're coming.

It does. No, it does, and it was really the first time that I really seen the changing of the guard. You know, I really didn, understand or see it before, but I think it was really the first time that I got to see just the changing of the guard. You know, a lot of these guys who are in the ultimate fighter, fighter started to become these, these big headline guys, you know, and all the guys who were, you uh already in a ufc and and the ones who were you know uh

really uh i guess hunting for us ultimate fighter guys because when we got to the ultimate we got off the ultimate fighter a lot of those guys who are already in the ufc they kind of had disdain for us they hated us because it was like who are these guys who have three or four fights five fights and i've been fighting you know i'm at 14 15 fights and they you know they have double triple the record that we do but no one knows who they are you know and all they wanted to do was just go in there and just destroy us and um you know to see the passing of the guard from those of that elk to the ultimate fighter and guys of my age it was it was a crazy process.

You know, Chuck had been the long standard bearer from the Tito and sham rock and couture era. And, you know, it's crazy. This would be three years from this fight until John Jones's reign began. And this was that time where it's, everyone's trying to make a mark, but there is a new generation and it's hot potato. It went from rampage beating Chuck to Forrest beating him. You would beat Forrest the next fight.

Machida right after that. Shogun two fights after that. So what a time. What a time for this light heavyweight division of all timers right here. But you came into your own. Chuck Liddell would not speak in the cage afterwards, but after the fight, he would tell fighters only,

it's just one of those things that happened, man. Does that mean I should retire? It wasn't like I was out there getting beat up for three rounds. I don't ever want to be that guy who was too old in the ring and everyone feels sorry for him because he can't fight. I don't think that was this fight. I was winning this fight and I got caught. So this is not a retirement fight.

But Rashad, by the time remains unbeaten as Liddell would go on to lose back-to-back fights to Shogun Hua and Rich Franklin by knockout until he was sort of forced to retire by the UFC, given a sweetheart deal of a vice president position. But, uh, Rob Sargent of MMA rising had an interesting paragraph to sum up the night says, while the shocking nature of Rashad's victory will live on in the highlight reels for years to come, the reality of the situation is that Liddell's one-trick game plan for every fight no longer works against fighters who have tactical strategies and power in their strikes. And this devastating loss has effectively ended any hopes that Liddell may have of ever being

champion again so I read that Rashad because I think that sums up you know sort of the changing of power from the old generation to the new the old generation wasn't necessarily one trick pony it wasn't just oh I'm the jujitsu guy I'm the boxer I'm the wrestler but you were a part of that new generation of complete fighters and Liddell cocking that right hand. I mean, it worked for a while, but you know, you, you saw what happens if you, if you've got that one meal ticket and nothing else. Yeah, you're right about that, man.

It was, um, a true change in the guard and just, you know, the way that fighters approach fights and just, you know, the, the abilities of the fighters in the, in the octagon and what was expected of them. And, you know, after in my area, you'll start seeing more of a, a transitional fight flow style to MMA. Whereas before it was very disciplined base and you can kind of tell what each person, each person was good at, you know, usually right out the gate. But nowadays, um, you know, guys that are expert in jujitsu, you know, really have good hands, too. And it's really hard to see where they're excellent until they really decide to showcase that aspect of the game. But back in the day, that wasn't how it was. You know, when you got a when you got a boxer, you pretty much got a guy who was, you know, a boxer.

And he had very little wrestling even though you know he knew that you were going to wrestle him and that's just how it was back then and it was it was kind of the beauty of it but at the same time you know every everything has to evolve well Rashad like I said it would only be three months until you would get that title shot so that's certainly the next episode of what happened against Forrest. But what do you remember about those three months? Because you went from, you know, respectable fighter to overnight celebrity. It had to be whether, you know what I mean? You, you, you suddenly have money, you've got fame. What, what's that wild ride like before the title shot? It was wild, man. It was, it was really wild, you know, just doing a lot of interviews and just,

you know, being pulled in a lot of different directions. And, you know, sometimes being in that position, you can kind of see the direction that you're being pulled in and kind of be able to, you know, try to make sense out of it. But sometimes you really can't see. And, and I admit, you know, I got myself caught up in some things that, you know, I wish that I would have been smarter about and just, you know, but, but but at the end of the day it's all part of the learning lesson you know i remember um i was having uh my daughter nia at the time and um i only got to spend a little bit of time uh before we had because she was born in november 13th so i had to you know see her for a little bit and then go right back to camp to you know

finish for my training for my title fights so I didn't really get much time with my newly born daughter and um you know it was something that made me you know uh focus a little bit more and really want to you know do good in this fight just because of the pressure just having a kid and if I remember right I think you were back in the studio of MMA Live like within a week of this victory. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was. We remember, of course, our producer, Mikey Mormile's late father,

Anthony Mormile, one of the big guns, along with our current boss, Karen Portley, behind that show. But I also was like a behind-the-scenes, last-minute editor. You know, the great Zach Candido of UFC producing fame today. He would send me sort of the final show, just look it over. scene's last minute editor you know the great zach candido of ufc producing fame today he would send me sort of the final show just look it over so uh those were wild days rashad it seems forever ago yet you know it seems like it just happened at the same time so post script to all of this atlanta you would fight one more time there and it would be the john jones title fight which was

a loss but a huge event a lot of emotion that went into that. When you visit Atlanta today, do you think that there's a Liddell fight? Is that the first image in your mind? Yeah, I still feel it, man. I was there filming a movie, the movie that we filmed called Boss Love with Rampage. We were actually filming it in the same mall that I was walking around in before that fight. And it was closed down at the time of the movie we're filming it. But I just remember walking and going through the escalators and just kind of just having like these flashbacks of when, you know, when I was fighting Chuck Liddell. And it's crazy because like, you know, you walk, you smell certain

things and it just instantly bring you back. And I remember just smelling the smell of this mall and instantly being, you know, transported right back to 2008. Well, I always ask you this. What has been the history of you and Chuck Liddell after this fight, running into each other, talking about each other publicly? The only thing I could really find was comments you had after Chuck recently came back and lost to Tito Ortiz in that ill-advised golden boy MMA trilogy in which you were like, I think Chuck should retire. And he made a response to that. But had you guys run into each other often in the years that followed this? Yeah, we've hung out quite a bit. You know, Chuck Liddell and i uh we actually came pretty good friends uh so you know we we've uh we've hung out quite a bit whenever he comes in town we try to see each other you know he actually turned out to be a pretty good friend and um you know there there's there's

many people in the sport but uh not many like chuck liddell chuck liddell has gotten he's he's he's a real real person he's a real person he's like he's one of the coolest guys in the game you know what I'm saying like his ego is not you know not not out of control or nothing like that and he doesn't handle people he doesn't come from that position where he's like I'm Chuck Liddell he's one of the coolest guys in the sport and I'm actually uh grateful that I got the chance to know him on his level. It does make me feel bad about our fight, but at the same time, you know, it just, he was going to do it to me. Right.

Indeed he would have. And I like to hear that, that he's, that he's a great guy. And it was almost like when he would have to have those trash talk battles with Tito, it was almost like he didn't want to, right. He couldn't believe that Tito's trying to pull this out of him. Like, you know, and he's like, all right, if you want me to, I'll kill you. You had your ups and downs over the years as I break my systems with Dana as well. But do you remember what it was like walking backstage after this

knockout seeing Dana on the for Tito's and any memories of that? Yeah. I remember just the look in Dana's face, you know, he was just kind of like you know shocked and surprised but uh you know really really happy what he found in me but just that sad overall for his friend but just kind of happy what he's found in me from a promoter standpoint you know and uh it was a good feeling man because he because he let me know you know and especially like lorenzo lorenzo was like one of those guys um who was such a great great great guy like lorenzo when i first started wearing suits and stuff like that lorenzo went and bought me like five tom

ford suits like top of the line yeah like he didn't just go there and buy them for me put his car down he went there we sat together he made appointment. He showed me what to get. You know what I'm saying? Like we, we had, we had like a father son type type thing, man. It was cool, man. Do you have any memorabilia as I look over your shoulder at the fantastic wall of fame of yourself there that you have any memorabilia from this fight UFC 88. Yeah. I got tons of memorabilia. You know, I got lots of memorabilia from from this time in general, you know, I got some in storage and things like that. One day I'm gonna make a room for all my things. I just haven't had,

you know the impetus right now to really do so. But now. Do you have the gloves, the trunks the all of it all of that all right i got it i got it all rashad always a pleasure to go through story time and and relive all the the details celebratory painful all the in between we appreciate that please like and subscribe this video as we love making these for you we hope you enjoy them just the same uh fantastic career from the great sugar rashad evans and in some ways, we are only getting started. Up next will be Forrest Griffin. We got Machida in the future.

We got Jon Jones. We got Rampage Jackson and the whole Ultimate Fighter season when doors are getting ripped off the hinges to get through. Rashad, do you want to put a button, put a bow on this great story of UFC 88 2008? Put a button on it? Put a button on it? Put a button on it? I think we've done everything we need to say, but like we always do, BC,

from you and I, we out. you