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

Episode Date: March 16, 2021

BC is back with his Mcdonalds wifi for this edition of 'Storytime with Suga'. Brian is joined by UFC Hall of Famer Rashad Evans to revisit his split decision win over Michael Bisping at UFC 78. Where was Rashad at mentally heading into this fight? What were his thoughts of Michael Bisping heading into the fight? How tired was Rashad in this fight? Rashad shares it all here. Follow along on UFCfightpass.com Michael Bisping vs. Rashad Evans. --------------------------- 'Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. And we're back. Yes, it is morning combat bonus edition story time with Rashad, one of the most popular, at least in my opinion, growing segments we do in this MK space. My name is Brian Campbell, the big beige bastard himself. But it's all about this other guy I do this show with, a man they make Hall of Fames for.

He is always sweet, never shower. Yes, a tower of ayahuasca power, Sugar Rashad Evans, your former light heavyweight king. Brother, always, always a pleasure to sit across from you on this. BC, it's good to be back, baby. And it's good to see you, my brother, man. It's good to see you. Let's get it cracking. Yeah, let's get this crap cracking, okay? Like the video, subscribe. You already know what you get from Morning Combat,

three days a week, live show, 11 a.m. Eastern. But it's this bonus stuff that keeps you coming back. This is episode four in a little series we do titled Storytime with Sugar Rashad. It began on the old CBS Sports State of Combat podcast, RIP, but we continue it right here on YouTube. And today is a very interesting one, as Rashad continues that unbeaten streak toward his first title shot, and this time a little bit of validation.

UFC 78, they called it validation, and that pay-per-view card main event Rashad Evans in the b-side of the marquee but not for long against the great one the count the fellow hall of famer Michael Bisping Rashad our site here the Prudential Center Newark New Jersey November 17th 2007 both you and Bisping 28 years old. And for anybody that missed our last episode, you were fresh off a very interesting draw with Tito Ortiz where you, you survived in advance to a certain degree, but that lingering criticism, can Rashad go the three hard five rounds, all that stuff still lingering.

Can you sort of set the stage for us here, November 17th, 2007, where you are mentally, what's going on? Yeah, I just had a draw with Tito Ortiz and the smoke was still settling from that. And, you know, I got a chance to watch it and just hear the criticism all around. And it was hard for me because, you know, for one, I built up the fight with so much trash talking and stuff like that. And it was really my first time I had to wear egg on my face and that's never really fun. It's always a interesting process. So, you know, once I wiped the egg off my face and just started to look at the film, I seen where I did good,

but I also seen where where I stumbled at and I could have done better. So I was just dead focused on just, you know, writing those wrongs and really trying to never make that happen again. And then I got a call from Joe Silva. Well, here's what's interesting. Let's set the stage on how this match came together. Both fighters coming off questionable-ish fights where you had the draw with Tito.

You had some good moments. You also had some moments you may have left that door open just a bit. You come away with a draw. Michael Bisping fresh off a split decision against Matt Hamill and it was the first time in Bisping's career it had gone to the scorecards a lot of people were saying maybe he had lost that fight but Rashad if you remember correctly you were not expected to fight Michael Bisping at UFC 78 from what I'm reading thank you to Wikipedia is there was talks about you rematching Tito in the main event

and then Bisping rematching Matt Hamill in the co-main event. Do you remember what happened here with how this thing fell apart? Yeah, because when I first got the call, I was really excited. Joseph was like, you know, you get a chance to fight Tito. And I was like, you know, you get a chance to fight, you know, Tito. And I was like, you know, you get a chance to run it back. I'm like, all right, cool. And that was supposed to be it. But then they called me a little bit later on

and said that that wasn't going to be the case. I guess Tito was having some kind of back issues. Like, you know, he has a struggle for back issues. So he wasn't going to be ready in time. And then they, he sold me like, I'm going to find you somebody else to fight. And I was like, all right, cool. So then he called me back and sold me like, I'm going to find you somebody else to fight. And I was like, all right, cool. So then he called me back and he's like, hey, what do you think in New Jersey, UFC main event, 78 in New Jersey fighting against an ultimate fighter champion?

And I'm thinking, yes, I finally get to fight against an ultimate fighter champion and 205 ultimate fighter champion and I was thinking okay I get Forrest Griffin I finally get my chance to fight Forrest Griffin because I've been chasing that rabbit for a long time Forrest was the guy who were like I I had to do better than like Forrest want to fight then I had to win a fight so I was kind of competing with Forrest quietly. He didn't know about it, but I was. So I finally had my chance to fight him. So I thought. And then he said, no, you got to fight Bisbing. And I was like, Bisbing? What? It was a letdown to say the least, BC. Yeah. In addition to the injury, Tito Ortiz, as history is telling us, had made a commitment to film the Celebrity Apprentice show,

so he's out of it. Matt Hamill gets an injury. He slides out. So you get the call for Bizping, and it's a relatively short turnaround since Michael had just fought two months earlier against Matt Hamill. A couple of interesting notes here is what you mentioned about the Ultimate Fighter. This was the first time winners of seasons competed against each other.

You, of course, won Tough 2 at heavyweight. Michael Bisping won the light heavyweight season three. So this will be the first time that two tough winners meet against each other. Also, the 100th UFC event overall. It's obviously UFC 78, but the 100th event overall. And Rashad, your first time as a pay-per-view headliner so as we talked about last time you made very little money in a pay-per-view co-main event against Tito but you did mention you got a nice little back room back room handshake a nice uh

plump almost 100k put in your pocket what did it mean for you though to get the call here I'm like you're rising to a point you're unbeaten you're're a tough champion. You're our pay-per-view headliner that had to be special. Yeah, it was very special. You know, it finally felt like the company was believing in me and it felt like they had something in me because before that I kind of felt like they were adversarial towards me and they just were kind of like dealing with me because I just kept winning. But I really felt like for the first time, they really started to get behind me and started to see what they had in front of them as far as an athlete is concerned. UFC 78 also had Tiago Silva versus Houston Alexander as the co-main.

You had Carl Parisian on there, Frankie Edgar against Spencer Fisher, Tiago Alvis against Chris Lytle. So an interesting eight fight card. I believe that arena was relatively new, correct, when you guys main evented it right there? You come in at 10-0-1, Rashad, fresh off that draw, as we mentioned, but the broadcast multiple times saying you're 15-0-1. What's going on here?

Are they counting tough wins? What happened there? Yeah, so it was 15-0-1 because they did they did count tough wins because my season was the only season that they counted the fights because they were the only season that went three rounds oh interesting yeah we were scheduled for three rounds so they were supposed to count the tough wins from that season all right that's why the ufc always counted those those wins as as wins all right. That has since changed. You have Bisping coming in at 14-0 that we mentioned right there,

coming off his first fight that went the distance. And, Rashad, we encourage everyone to head over to UFC Fight Pass where we re-rot this fight. We'll try to call out some time stamps to keep people abreast of where we're going. But, Rashad, you know I always get pumped up when we relive these fights and we see the interview packages off the start. It sets the tone. You always tell me they're not feeding you lines.

You're bringing the real. And Rashad says UFC 78 validation. If you don't have validation within yourself, it's impossible to get it from anyone else. I think that might be the perfect title. A lot of talk in these packages about both of you coming off questionable situations but as the interviews kept going it got a little trash talky where Rashad finally goes look I'm gonna go out there and fight my kind of fight anything can happen but I feel like I am going to kick

his ass this is my octagon I want to be champ I want to step up and take the title biz ping countering with I'm coming for you Rashad I've got the greatest of respect for you. You're a gentleman, but on fight night, that is going out the window. We are going to go to war. Rashad, they referenced as you guys were getting set to walk to the cage, that the weigh-in the day before was one of the first times you got really heated. I could not track down a video, but what happened during that? So it all started with, you know, we had like this little blog that we would do. And I had Tom Gervaisi writing for me. He had Ant Evans writing for him and what they'll do, they will call us every week. And it is add us, ask us how was a week training and what we thought about the fight. And after before too

long, you know, some words said, and next thing you know, that whole build-up to the fight, weekly build-up to the fight, just became a whole reason for us, a way for us, I guess, to trash talk to each other. And he said some things, I said some things, and before you know it, it was pretty heated. It was really heated. And at the time, I had respect for Michael Bisping,

but I didn't necessarily think he was a really good fighter. I thought he was pretty decent, but I thought he was kind of sloppy. I thought he was kind of sloppy. And once he got in there with me, I was just going to nullify all that sloppiness and just show him how it was really done. Boy. And Goldie mentioned a quote that Bisping gave at the weigh-in the day before where he said,

I've seen more aggression from my girlfriend when she hits January sales than what I've seen from Rashad. So very interesting right there. Joe Rogan was quick to counter that. Michael might be a funny guy, but you don't want to wake the beast that is inside of Rashad. So Rashad, we close out these video packages with you looking into the camera. This is not funny guy, Rashad. This is almost gangster Rashad going, I'm going to beat the shit out of him. And I'm serious. So that got me fired

up. We head to the ring walks. You're only four months removed from the Ortiz fight. And as you come, we've got a dubbed over music, which is what we get a lot on UFC Fight Pass because they don't retain the rights. They put some new metal bullshit as you're walking out. What did you walk out for in this fight? I came out to a song from a friend. It was called

Famous. This guy named Reggie, he came out with a song called Famous using an old sample off of... famous. This guy named Reggie, he came up with a song called Famous using an old sample off of It was like one of those samples. I think that's David Bowie, I think it is. I don't really know off the top of my head. But that was the sample

it was used from. That was a song never really went nowhere, but it was cool at the time. All right. You walk out, Rashad. You're looking happy, not too intense, not too nervous, very loose. The graphic comes up, your strengths, Division I college wrestler, quick takedowns, solid ground and pound.

And Rogan points out that even though you won the tough championship at heavyweight, you're now one of the smaller 205ers. And you mentioned how Ortiz had a huge strength advantage against you four months earlier. Did, were you confident that this was your right weight class coming off of that, where it was not easy to dominate Tito on the ground? Yeah, I felt like it was my right weight class. You know, I just felt like in that particular fight, I just didn't do what I could do. You know, I didn't really feel like I was undersized by anybody. I felt as if like my size was kind of perfect because it allowed people to kind of overlook me. But at the same time, you know, because I was shorter than them, it was easier for me to get underneath them. Goldberg gives you credit as a tremendous, tremendous athlete,

which we hear a lot on your initial ride. Can they just mention that you got a great fight IQ as well? Come on. Listen, they early UFC, they would never say those things. For some reason back in those days, man, they just had a hard time saying that, yo, this guy is a skilled martial artist. They couldn't say it. They couldn't say it no matter who I trained with, no matter what the people I trained with said about me.

They just couldn't say that he was a good martial artist. Joe Rogan had given Greg Jackson credit for transforming you from a wrestler to a dangerous mixed martial artist. He says the thing about Rashad is every time we see him fight, we see improvement. He's a tireless worker. And Rashad, everyone on Team Rashad is every time we see him fight, we see improvement. He's a tireless worker. And Rashad, everyone on team Rashad, including you wearing a dragon fly sponsor, you've got red trunks. Everyone's got a black t-shirt. What was dragon fly? What do you remember

from that era? So dragon fly was this, um, this, uh, I guess brand that was in, in, in California, Hollywood at the time. And, uh, it was, it was taking off a little bit. It was kind of like Ed Hardy-ish. Remember Ed Hardy and the flick? Remember that kind of style? It was like that. It was like that. And I was supposed to brand off and have my own line with the dragonfly called Sugarfly. And it just never ended up happening. But I would say this, though.

They were supposed to make me the shorts, and this is probably the reason why it didn't happen. They were supposed to make me some shorts, and they fumbled the ball with that whole thing to the point where on fight week, they were supposed to send the shorts, and they didn't do it. They didn't have the shorts ready for me.

So my manager hit him up and was like, hey, where's the shorts at? They had, they had no idea where the nothing that we were talking about. So my manager had to go get a pair of shorts, had to go get like a pair of shorts from, um, some local sports store and just put some patches on it. And those shorts were tight. If you look at, if you go and look at those shorts, them joints with some straight booty splitters. Like I didn't have much mobility at all. And it was the kind of shorts that didn't allow,

like didn't have like the neoprene in it. So it didn't stretch at all. It was like super, super tight. Oh my gosh, it was booty splitters all night. Yeah, borderline John stocked in ball-hugging shorts there. Rashad, why was Michael Bisping the A-side? Do you remember that being an issue in your mind at all? Was he more popular at the time than you? I can't figure out why. You know what? I can't figure out why either. Watching it back, I was like,

how is he the A-side when I fought Tito Ortiz, which was a higher caliber? But I would say this, the reason why he was probably the A-side is because his fight was, he won his last fight, you know, and mine was a draw. So because he won, he was in a superior position. He also coming from a very aggressive, you know, fan base, the UK area, obviously for boxing and mixed martial arts is hot. So Bisping comes out, he's nodding his head. He's staring at the ground.

He's got a black hoodie on. He's got an affliction t-shirt on. They mentioned he's the first British fighter to headline a UFC event. Joe Rogan says this guy's right out of a Guy Ritchie movie. And then Goldie mentions this, that you and Bisping hung out in London, but then it got ugly for what you mentioned, the back and forth over the UFC blog. What was that friendship like when you hung out in London?

It was pretty cool. We did a UFC expo together in July of that year of 2017. And we had a good time together. We hung out every single day, ate meals together, you know, drank together, partied together, all that kind of stuff. And, you know, I was actually thinking at that time, like, wow, this is a pretty cool guy. Like, I felt at that point, like, I could be friends with him outside of the fight game. Wow. All right. Well, Bisping has in this corner the acting light heavyweight champion, Rampage Jackson.

So this is long before you and Rampage would tear down doors together with Tuff. But Bisping had trained in Big Bear in California with Rampage ahead of the Matt Hamill fight. He did stay in England ahead of this fight. At that time, Rampage had just knocked out Chuck. Were you thinking that this fight could get you into a title shot next, or did you think you were a little bit further away? I felt like I was a bit further away, but at the same time, just having that interaction with rampage there in bisbing corner it made me want to fight rampage because while me and bisbing was john i could see rampage saying something you know rampage is not gonna keep his mouth shut for nothing so he will be

john so he'll say something and i'll be like okay he's gonna get his too yeah he had a giant leather almost affliction-like jacket on, which is so of the time in 2007. Everybody is dressed in so prime 2007. Joe Rogan with a tight sweater that shows off the muscles. He's got the giant watch, all that good stuff. Tail of the tape on the screen, Michael Bisping, 6'2", Rashad Evans, 5'11", and Bisping coming in with a one-inch reach advantage. Both of you are 28 years old.

Your referee, Dan Marigliata and Rashad, this guy looking jacked as shit. Also very tan. It always rubbed me the wrong way when the referee looks like he can beat up the two guys in the fight. That's just me talking. That was prime Dan. That was when Dan first came in. Dan was like the new Big John. You know what I'm saying?

Big John stopped being Big John at the time when Big Dan came in and started to reference. Well, Rashad, you take off your shirt before the start of the fight. And I'm noticing, I think this is the best shape we have seen you in up to this point. Very little body fat around the stomach and love-handling area. You're sort of at the end of your transition from originally heavyweight and tough to becoming that prime fit eventual light heavyweight champion. Do you remember this specifically being your best camp? What was it like for you in New Mexico? I had a really good camp. I had a really good camp.

You know, GSP was there a lot during that camp. He was training for a fight. So he was my training partner and you know, we, we would train, you know, like, like how GSP trains and GSP trains, you know, he does a lot of drilling after every single, uh, practice, like an hour of drilling afterwards. So a lot of repetitions, um, and just a lot of technical work, but at the same time, really good hard work. Rashad, you would go on to say after this fight in an interview with Sure Dog and not to give much away. A lot of people remember what the, how this fight happened, but you had said, you know, you made the weight good, but you regretted some elements of your preparation for it. And that's maybe why, uh, you didn't look so happy

afterwards. I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but what do you sort of regret when you looked back at training camp? Well, the training camp was good, but I just had a very bad weight cut. I had a very bad week in Jersey. I didn't cut my weight properly and then I didn't refuel properly. And then the next day when I woke up, I felt as if like I had a little bit of a chest cold happening, you know, just that congestion in my chest happening and it was burning. My lungs were burning a lot. So I felt as if like I was, I was coming down with something and it was kind of just a week of, of the fight. All right. Bisping welcoming the booze during his introduction from Bruce Buffer,

waving his hands in the air to bring more, always the heel. And also during the referee instructions, you both did touch gloves. But Rashad, you had a particularly harsh death stare going on. Was this sort of your last attempt at intimidation? Well, you know what? I was just trying to see if he was going to even dat me up because he was giving me that look like he wasn't going to dat me. You know what I'm saying? And then that would have just added to another level of pistivity so I was just kind of like holding it out there like all right Rashad before we we took we start this off to kick off round one of this fight let's sort of talk about where we're at you

were honest and saying you didn't necessarily think Bisping was as good as advertised you're both coming off of questionable performances looking looking to make a big statement. What was the game plan coming in against Bisping? Well, after watching the Matt Hamill fight, you know, the game plan was clear, you know, take them down a million times and just pretty much have his way, have my way with them. At the time, my top game was really coming on strong. And I felt as if like, I just got them down one time, I'll be able to advance my position and then get him in a position where I was able to ground and pound him out.

Well, that was certainly your strategy right off the top. We started off with a little bit of circling and then seven minutes in at 453, Rashad lands a big right hand. You come right back with a second one. And although you missed the third right hand, it led right into a shoot. Bisping stuffed the takedown, but you got him backed up against the cage.

And we begin a vicious cycle here for Bisping of Rashad looking to leave the threat of the right hand there so you can shoot in. At 424 of the round, you're still working hard against the cage. And Goldie mentions that Rashad from Niagara Falls, New York, this fight being in Newark, this is the closest to your birthplace you've fought up to this point. He's trying to frame it like it's a hometown fight. Hey, Goldie, it's like a six and a half hour drive from Newark, New Jersey, to the Canadian border at Niagara Falls. Did you have as many family members there to cheer you on as Goldie made it

seem? BC is more like a 10 hour drive. And I did have a lot of family that come and cheer you on as Goldie made it seem? BC, it's more like a 10-hour drive, and I did have a lot of family that come and cheer me on, but it was by far not a hometown fight, but it was close enough where a lot of people did come. And here's the thing about it. They end up driving, which took a lot longer than if they would have took a plane, so it's kind of like one of those catch-22. They're close enough, but at the same time, they got there, and it took a lot longer than if they would have took a plane. So it was kind of like one of those catch-22. You know, they're close enough, but at the same time, they got there and it took a lot longer because they drove.

Were your – had you had any of your parents at the fights up to this point? Like, what was this – you know, was this a – knowing that this was a pay-per-view headline, or was this the most amount of support you had up to this? Yeah, it was the most amount of support. You know, I never had my mom go to any of my fights and I didn't do that because, you know, after I fought Brad Irons, his mom died the night after our fight. So I was like, Ooh, that's not probably not a good idea. So I just never had to go to one of my fights. All right. Well, look, this first

minute is all about you working in the standing clinch against Bisping. You're working the waist, trying to get them down. Rogan calling you relentless. And finally you get that takedown. Michael Bisping pops back up and you continue to work the standing clinch. Was it obviously your goal in the first minute here is to get him down, but you seem to be dominating. Were you impressed up to this point though, with Bisping's stubbornness? Yeah. I mean, I knew he was going to be stubborn. I was more impressed with just how squirmy he was.

He was super, super squirmy and very slippery. And not to mention, he did grab the cage a couple times, which maybe helped him kind of stay up. But if the ref don't call it, then I won't call it here, BC. I won't do it. I will not do it. But what I will say is that his squirminess was something that I really

didn't anticipate. At the four minute mark chance of USA breakout from the Newark faithful. Did it feel at any point that this was a home? It certainly wasn't a hometown fight for you, but did you feel you had the fans throughout this one? I did. When they started yelling at USA, it was like, okay. I felt as if like, all right, these fans are really starting to appreciate a brother. You know what I'm saying? I'm starting to feel like, okay, the Boo Rashad days are over. Now they're starting to really

warm up to me. Well, at 340 of the first round, you land two right hands from the clinch. You shoot for another takedown. Michael Bisping backs up to the cage. He's doing a decent job of stuffing it, but you are all over him. We stay into that standing clinch though, until three minutes and 19 seconds when Marigliata breaks you up. Right off of that breakup though, Rashad, you explode. Two quick right hands again, you shoot in and it's just all Rashad early up to

this point. Even if you're not manhandling him on the ground, you are the aggressor. And that right hand is a big part of your early success. Yeah. We wanted to put that pressure on them. We felt as if like we put that pressure on them, whether it be from the punches or the shots, one of them was going to find the mark,

you know, Greg Jackson's hallmark to how he became, how he got us to be so successful was he always wanted to put our opponents on what he called the horns of dilemma. Meaning the fact that they can't make the right choice that you're there between a rock and a hard place to either decide to block the punches or take the takedown or stop the takedown and take the punches either way. They can't win.

So that's what we always try to do. And that was what I tried to keep Bisping in. Three minutes of the first round. Bisping very comfortable despite his back to the cage. He gets you in that plumb, the Muay Thai clinch for the first time. You react by jumping out. That opens up a knee to the leg. But the crowd begins to boo about 10 seconds later.

You're controlling, but there's not a lot of action going on. Joe Rogan starts to praise Bisping's takedown defense. And finally, at 231, you break free. You swing for the fences, and you just barely touch him with that right hand. It was an interesting situation where you took a step back. Bisping's hands went down, and I felt like if that punch landed,

the fight would have been over. Joe Rogan saying it showed a hole in Michael Bisping's stand-up game that you may be able to exploit later. Do you feel like you just missed your Sunday punch on that one? I did, and I've seen it because one thing that Bisping always did and which got him caught by Dan Henderson was he'll pull out and he'll pull out long like this, and he'll circle right into your power side.

You know what I'm saying? He'll pull his head out, and he'll pull it out long with his hands down, and he'll go right into your power side. And if you can time it right, you can loop and catch him with an overhand right. And that's what I was trying to do. And that's what I was feeling. But I just couldn't get his little squirrely ass. Well, Rashad shoots again, gets another takedown. This time you're able to hold him down for the first time. You mount up and land a nice right hand haymaker, you pass guard, you get side control. It is all Rashad Evans here. You hold them for another minute at a minute,

30 Bisping does some nice transitioning from the bottom. He escapes, he stands up and now we continue working from the stand standing clinch. Joe Rogan says this has got to give Michael Bisping some confidence though, even though his back was to the ground, he's able to avoid any kind of serious ground and pound. Rashad, this is where I'm going to have to begin to give Michael Bisping a lot of credit. And I have to be honest and say, historically, I've underrated him. I thought he was an overrated fighter. I know he did have that upset victory over Luke Rockhold

to win the championship late in his career, sort of put that final validation on everything he had done. But you watch this fight closely and you experienced it firsthand, man, him on his back, a lot of really sneaky, good skills he's doing to never put himself in any kind of crazy danger. Yeah, he really did a good job on, on like in all those positions. Um, I really put a lot of pressure on him, but my biggest mistake was the fact that, you know, in that half guard position, I kept allowing his right arm to stay behind my right arm. And it didn't allow me to reach back. What I should have done is I should have grabbed his head and anchored myself around his head. And I would have been able to secure that position more tightly. But because he was able to get on the other side of my right arm, I couldn't, I was always forced to just kind of hip him down

and keep him down. But keeping him down with my hip was not strong enough to him because I mean, for him, because he was so good at scrambling. And it seemed like all he needed was just a little bit of movement and then he can scramble the rest of the way up. Yeah, Bisping not known for his ground game by far at this point. In fact, it had been something that he was criticized for in that Hamill fight, but he's doing very well defensively.

We're on our feet again about a minute to go in the round. Bisping once again gets that Muay Thai clinch, hits you with a knee, but Rashad, I got to give you a lot of credit. Anytime he landed something big, you responded right away. A big-time uppercut, then a short elbow from the clinch. Were you that type of fighter at this point where anytime you get hurt, it sort of pisses you off where you want to answer back right away? Yeah, man.

I mean, that was what came from being in the gym at Jackson's, you know, training with Keith Jardine, Nate Marquardt, and George St. Pierre. You know, we were always competing at such an even level with each other. You cannot let any, you know, we always had to respond no matter what happened. Under a minute to go, you are just relentless here you take biz ping down again move to side control you land your first real flush shot from that top position you land that right hand early but you got a nice little short elbow with 10 seconds to go you nearly get full mount you land one more right hand before the horn and at that moment as you are on top of Bisping, as rewatching this, I'm going,

damn, Rashad is on fire. But Rashad, the second you stood up though, and I saw the deep breath that you took, I was getting a little nervous. Like you might've shot the wad a little bit. Let's be honest here. Did you go too hard in that opening round? I went really hard that opening round, went for a lot of shots. And that's what it was. It was just the amount of shots that I took and then not for nothing, scrambling inside the ground. The guard, once I had him down, was was also a very taxing thing when it comes to to cardio. But, you know, one thing I would say, though, that arena was a hockey arena. The Prudential Center was a hockey hockey arena. And in order to keep the ice cold or in order to keep the ice frozen, they have to keep the building kind of cold. So it was very, very cold in there. So not only was I feeling it in my lungs, I was feeling like I was kind cold outside, it feels like you're breathing in needles. You know what I'm saying?

That's what it felt like when I was breathing in. So after that first round, I'm just like, I go back to the corner. I'm just like, yo, my lungs are on fire. I can't breathe. And Greg Jackson's like, okay, come on. We got him. We got to keep him going. We need more takedowns like that.

And I'm just like. Well, you look, to be honest, you look a little worried on the stool there. You look tired. Jackson yells deep breath into your face. He goes, you've got 10 more minutes. Can you give me 10 more minutes? No response from Rashad. He goes, come on, deep breath. But then we show Bizping and look, Bizping was doing the old rounds, but Rashad, he is, uh, he's, he's, he's breathing pretty heavy too I mean he is sucking

some serious wind so do you feel like that that sort of debate of man I may have tired myself out but I also took out a ton of him was worth it yeah I felt it was worth it because I knew he was tired and I felt that he was tired I felt that just by the way that he was reacting you know when he was he was on his heels a lot and he wasn't so offensive and he didn't have the same, that same bounce in his jab as he did, uh, in earlier in a fight. So I felt as if like it was getting him tired, but, um, it got me a lot more tired than I expected. Like I like going into that fight. I felt as if like I was in the absolute best shape of my life and there was no way in hell I was going to get tired by any means. All right.

10-9 round easy for Rashad. Not enough damage on the ground to get the 10-8, but a clear domination from my standpoint. Judges agreed. Crowd shot of Keith Jardine, your teammate, decked out in dragonfly wear. Gives a pretty hefty fist bump. Rashad, he was fresh off at that time the split decision win over Chuck Liddell so this is prime Keith Jardine I know you'd fought in the ultimate fighter season and

by the way if anyone forgot how good that fight was go back and watch it a lot of back and forth I know he's a heavy training partner was there any thought that you may have to fight him again because you both were legitimate title contenders at this point they were trying to push it at times but um they they seen how committed that we were. We're just really not fighting each other. Really not even entertaining, tainting it that they left it alone after a while. And they just kind of made us fight,

you know, you know, mirror opponents, you know what I'm saying? Like, like he'll fight one guy. I fought where I'll fight one guy that he fought before. And they're just kind of swapping around,

swap us around like that. But, you know, it was, it was so cool to be able to have a guy like that, who was like my binary star in that weight class, because, you know, he propelled me to get better being able to train with somebody who's at the top of the weight class, as well as myself was like me training with the best every single day. Yeah. I mean, he was world-class that, that victory over Chuck Liddell, he was crafty. He was tricky. He was tough as balls and he always looks the Dean of me and always looks like a bad-ass as well. All right. The first round domination continuing here off the start,

Bisping misses a front kick to the chest. And at 10 seconds in, you land two right hands. You get a takedown event attempt. Although Bisping blocked it, you lift the count up and you slam them down to Rashad. Maybe for the second time after those USA chants early, the Newark crowd popping big to that takedown. Rashad in full control here earlier in round two. That was what I was trying to get this whole time.

I just wanted a nice, clean takedown. Get him up off the ground. Let him see how far he was going to fall and then drop him down. Just to let him know what I'm capable of, let him know the strength that I had and let him know that even though I had a really hard first round, I was a little bit gas and tired. I still had more energy for him the second round. 30 seconds into round two, Joe Rogan warning that Rashad does need to be careful because Michael Bisping has a few tricky submission attempts off of his back. Although he never got you into any at that

point. Look, you're a growing fighter. You had a lot of early success in UFC where you're learning on the job. Were you wary at all? Was that part of your training to beware of getting yourself trapped on the ground at all? Yeah, I was wary. I was really wary, especially, you know, after getting my head caught in a guillotine choke by Tito Ortiz, which scared the bejesus out of me. So at that point, I was a little bit more cautious and just living up to the gaitu jitsu standards. Gaitu jitsu is the BJJ that Greg Jackson has stylized and made after his own fighting style.

So I was just kind of tapping into those roots of that style and just really, um, being disciplined on the ground when it came to submission fighting. Two right hands from Rashad from top position, Bisping's corner you can hear on the broadcast yelling for him to elbow from the bottom. And he starts for the first time to really land offensively from the bottom, a short elbow and Rashad at three 49 of this second round, I think it was a key turning moment. You're in top position.

You posture up. But you not only look frustrated that you're unable to consistently dominate him with ground and pound, but you're breathing very heavy. And one thing I've noticed is Bisping's controlling your hands. He's got you by the wrist. Although it never led to any submission attempts that we talked about. It looked like it pissed you off because he transitioned from holding your wrist to landing a clean punch from the back. And then you got so pissed off from getting hit that you whack a mold him to the stomach. Is this correct in saying not only are you tiring despite being successful here, but he's kind of pissing you off because you're not able to have your way.

Yeah, I mean, he's jamming up the action down there and really not, you know, not allowing me to do what I want to do. You know, what I really, really, really want to do is break the guard. But, you know, I didn't I didn't want to dedicate the effort to it. I just wanted to, like, punch him until he opened his guard himself. And that was that was my whole mindset. But, you know, even to get into a position to posture and punch him, it was hard just because every single time I got up to posture, he would be wiggling and moving and just jamming things up. And all of that convoluted ground and pound between him and I amounted to the referee calling a stalemate.

Yeah, and that's what ended up happening next. Look, you know it's 2007 because there's a Mickey's malt liquor logo on the canvas. And we can also notice that despite you holding top position, your mouth piece is loose. It's next to it next to you. That leads to Dan Marigliata stopping the action and standing them up. You put the mouse piece back in and at two 59 of this round, both fighters start to really contest evenly in the standup. You both land right hands and then a good counter shot from Bisping.

And Joe Rogan mentioning something that became a theme this round. Rashad is continuing to breathe very heavy. And Rashad, this is where Bisping transitions into his best stretch of the fight. And where really his strengths as a kickboxer start to come out. Some very good jabs, very good boxing. He's controlling distance well, and it leads Goldie to not only bring up Bisping's kickboxing background, but saying he competed in an under-12 martial arts tournament,

which really doesn't seem to come to be as impressive as it sounds on the air. But Bisping making a transition in this round, keeping you at your feet. I think you're too exhausted to shoot right here, Rashad. At 219, we have another key moment. Lead left hook lands from a very comfortable Bisping. But here is where you avoid getting into any real trouble. You sort of stem the tide of Bisping's run by countering with another hard flush right hand to sort of slow it down. I feel like you're doing just enough to avoid anything bad

happening, Rashad, but you are getting outworked in this stretch. Yeah, I'm getting outworked a little bit, but I mean, it's really the first time that Bisping was really going to work. I mean, for the first half of the fight, you know, I've been putting him on his heels, getting him down, and he's been playing defense for the most part, but this is really the first time that he's starting to be offensive. So it was, it was a bit of a dig for me at that point, because I exhausted myself by taking so many different, you know, takedowns. And I don't even know how many attempts I even took him at the time, but I had at least take 10 or 15 and, you know, some got through and just some, a lot more stuff, but at the same time,

just trying to push that pressure forward and trying to get somebody down. Well, it was very hard. And he started to come on at the later half of that second round. So I really had to dig deep and and stop looking for the shot, but just kind of try to find a home for my for my ones and twos. Now, your right hand had been key, as I mentioned, to sort of stop him from completely taking over at any point. Obviously, your right hand had become a major threat. I mean, look, the Chuck Liddell knockout is insane. You used your right hand to win the championship. Were you a believer at this point that you had a weapon that could, you know, no one could really match in this sport,

that you were a legit knockout threat? Because let's not forget, Rashad, in this journey, it was questioned in your early rise whether you had legit top-end power. I felt that I had it, but I really wasn't a believer. And you're not really a believer until you see it at work, until you see evidence of it, you know what I'm saying? In a real-life situation, I had some good knocks in practice where I caught people, but for the most part, it was nothing that gave me the overall confidence that I would have eventually have from seeing it in full display when I fought Chuck. And to say somebody has power, Rashad, it can be a couple of different

things. There's heavy handedness, there's natural strength, but it's how much of it is technique in terms of you growing into it? I mean, obviously confidence, a big part too. How much is all of that come together to sort of make the idea of somebody having power?? I mean, obviously confidence is a big part too. How much has all of that come together to sort of make the idea of somebody having power? Well, a lot of it is technique. You know, it's about, you know, how the body mechanics are and where you are, where your feet is placed,

how you're twisting your hips, you know, what your legs are doing. All of that matters when it comes to delivering that powerful punch and that torque on that punch. And it felt as if like I did have a pretty good punch. But after watching that video, I see why I didn't land with enough umph to really do anything substantial. Because when I was throwing those punches, a lot of times if you watch the film, like my back foot was moving.

You know what I'm saying? Even though I was catching them, I didn't have anything planted when I was really hitting him. So it wasn't really anything to drive from the floor up into the target. So I was kind of missing the connection on my feet and my hand placement once I connected. Last two minutes of the second round are fantastic in terms of the back and forth. You block a pretty serious head kick from Bisping.

Rogan's still going on and on about how your mouth is wide open, but you're competent there. You land another good right hand at 205 at 153. You're trading right hands. Bisping stuffs what looked like a half-hearted takedown attempt from you just to show him that the threat is still there. And then we get an outside leg kick from Bisping at 139, in which Rogan goes, wow, very nice.

Rashad, obviously the calf kick is becoming in 2021 a thing that's very in vogue. We didn't see it a lot in this fight. Bisping the only one doing it a couple times here and there. Was that a game changer at all? Did that alter your strategy when you got hit with that? No, I didn't even really even pay any attention to it, to be honest, because it really wasn't substantial. He wasn't consistent enough with it.

He threw a pretty decent body kick, and I caught it, and I was able to take him down with it early in the first round. But that was really about it. Another right cross from you to keep yourself in it. A 118, a big left hook from Rashad. You trade some weak kind of arm punches, and Joe warns once again. Rashad took a deep breath there and exploded and his mouth is wide open uh we go to one minute left a right hand from Bisping uh you guys get into a

clinch he's trying to get the Muay Thai clinch on you he's got the plum he gets a knee to the body Rashad that looked like a flush one you remember that taking any air out of the tank it was a flush knee um it just it didn't take too much air out of tank but it was one where i was like i definitely don't want to get hit with one of those again i mean he was able to that's the thing about bismuth he was able to fit in just the right combination when he felt me just lax for one second you know and uh that kept me on my toes a bit this round still feels like it's a little bit up for grabs entering the final minute. Bisping maybe got the more consistent striking. I think you had landed the bigger shots.

You had gotten more takedowns up to this point. Another knee from Bisping with under a minute to go. You shoot in, but you get stuffed. And Rogan, once again, man, Rashad is using up a lot of energy. On the rewatch, Rashad, you getting pissed off at all during this? Yeah, I get pissed off man I'm just like come on like like it's a fight man it's a fight like I'm taking a hundred shots I'm throwing all everything I got I'm walking this guy down you know I'm doing everything I can to bring the fight

of course my mouth is gonna be open if my mouth isn't open at this point after everything that I've done then then I'm not even working hard. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's hard to keep your mouth closed and take 100 shots, land 100 punches, and just be like this the whole time. That's not realistic, man. That's not realistic. And not to mention, to not make excuses, but I had a little congestion in my nasal cavity, so I couldn't even breathe out my nose if I wanted to. But I was mad tired, though.

I got to give it to them. They were right about that. I was crazy tired, man. Full circle right there. You're like, I was mad, but they were right. 25 seconds to go. Nice pair of uppercuts from Bisping while his back was to the cage. Look, he's a very good sort of defensive counterstriker.

That's showing that helps him get some separation. You get a leg kick from Bisping, a nice right hand combination to finish that. But Rashad, every time you get lit up, man, you come back a hard right hand counter, which again is leaving this round feeling like it's up for grabs. 11 seconds to go. I think Mike Goldberg had an on-air orgasm as Michael Bisping lands a two-punch combo. And then in the final seconds, you can tell me it feels like Bisping may have done enough to take this. He fakes a Superman punch, but hits a knee to the body.

And he shoots in and picks up, well, a little bit, pick up, and takes the great Rashad Evans down at the horn as Rampage Jackson is a foot behind you guys going sick. Rashad, was that takedown what clinched this round for Bisping in your eyes? Yeah, you know what? Yeah, it was, man. It was. That was a good takedown. He worked it. He felt that I was kind of fading, and he just put the pressure on. And good on him to even think a takedown because that was the last thing I was thinking that he would ever try to hit on me, and he did. He got him with a takedown.

As you walk back to the corner, Joe Rogan goes, that just goes to show you how tired Rashad is. Oh, boy, here we go. BizPink's corner says, hey, Michael, take the fight to him and take the fight out of him. Rashad, they are thinking you are out of gas here. Greg Jackson gets in your face. Give me five minutes. Give me five minutes and you win it. Goldie saying, look, it could be very well one round apiece. And he says, why should

it be any different? And Joe, well, Rashad, he won't stop talking about how you're breathing heavy between rounds. Do you remember any kind of feeling like it was getting away from you? I just remember feeling very tired. And I'm just remember sitting on a stool and Greg Jackson's talking about, do you have five more minutes? And I'm just like ready to lose my bowels on a stool. Like I'm ready to piss myself. I'm so tired and I can't breathe.

And he's asking, do I have five more minutes left? And I'm just looking at this dude like, oh, my gosh. Yeah, I got no choice at this point, Greg. I got no choice. Of course I got five minutes in me. Well, look, that little speech worked. Rashad, you came out in the first 10 seconds of round three. You landed punches that were quicker and powerful than anything you had thrown

since the beginning of the fight. Nice little piece of boxing from you, a right hand, a big left hook. This pin counters 10 seconds later, you're trading punches and Goldie goes, who will engage first? Hey, Goldie, they've been trading punches for about 30 seconds, bro. What is going on with this guy? I thought the same thing, man. I thought I was like Goldie tripping, but you know what it was? Goldie was riding Bisling hard that fight. Like if you watch the fight, he only talked about Bisling. He said a couple of things about me, but it was? Goldie was riding Bisping hard that fight. Like if you watch the fight, he only talked about Bisping. He said a couple of things about me, but it was like it felt as if like Goldie was for Bisping and Joe Rogan was for me or gave me a lot more credit than. Well, I'm not trying to play on a seat of conspiracy theory here, Rashad.

But this is right around the time when the great Ricky Hatton in boxing was coming up to prominence, world champion in two weight classes. This is 2007, right? So he had just fought Floyd Mayweather. I think they saw the potential business that could be had in the UK. It probably explains again why BizPing was the A-side. I'm not saying Dana and Lorenzo say, hey, Goldie, talk up BizPing on air. But maybe it was one of those things where they know what's going on. Well, look, in this first minute, Bisping's busy, but he's starting to come up short on his punches for the first time. Rashad, you're negotiating distance well. And this is where you mentioned what happened early in the first round.

It happens again. You catch a leg kick attempt from Bisping, and you shoot in. Although he stuffed it initially, you continue working, and you take him down. And then you eat, though, a very flush punch from Bisping's back. So as you're seeing here, Rashad, this is what I love about this fight. In hindsight, I maybe thought about this fight as just a transitional period for you to go from the Ortiz draw into the Liddell fight into winning the title but this fight was a tough ass test man anything you can do he's got a counter and vice versa yeah it was a tough ass test because we were so evenly matched and um and and evenly match

in opposite areas of our strengths you know what I'm'm saying? You know, he, he, he was so, he was so much better. Well, he was better than me with the standup. He had, he had better, uh, kickboxing and things like that, but on the ground, you know, of course it goes without saying I had that on him, but, um, you know, it was, it was, we were good enough in those opposite disciplines to give each other a little bit of problems in those areas. So it was a very evenly contested fight and you know, Bisping surprised me, but I think, I think beyond any technique that Bisping was able to do, I think it was just that, that scrambling ability that Bisping had that just kept him in his fight.

Yeah. And look, Rashad, it looks good from a, an optical standpoint for the judges when somebody is on their back and they land a flush punch, but do those hurt? I mean, can you get much leverage in that situation? Are you worried when you're on top position and you're getting hit a little bit? Nah, you're not worried about those punches at all, you know, because, you know, they're fighting against gravity, you know what I'm saying? And they can probably pop you with something, maybe bloody or lip, but for for the most part it's not going to be anything too concussive unless unless you let them get one of those those jammies like uh

like you've seen um uh um who was it uh kevin uh holland kevin holland kevin holland hit hit jacare souza with one of those ones those ones ones. Now, those ones will put you out, but he wasn't generating that kind of power. No, not anytime here. All right, here we go. 345 of the final round. Here's what's interesting. Bisping's on his back. He sits up on his ass, shimmies back to the cage. As you come running in,

he turns the table, spins you around. It's not a takedown, but it's a reversal of position. You stand up. Bisping took your back for about a split second and joe rogan yells big mistake from a shot uh no choke put in but are you a little nervous in that in that scramble yeah because i mean listen i i felt like i was in control but at the same time there was moments where that scrambling ability that bisping had was starting to come through and i'm thinking like okay is this going to be like how it was at the end of the second where

he was actually able to get me down to the ground i was like hell to the no i cannot allow this to happen under three minutes to go both guys looking a little gassed you're both missing wild punches going for something big goldie reminding us this fight can be determined by what happens in the next two minutes. At 217, a big right hand from Rashad. It was a two-punch combo, a nice one-two. You land another right cross. You shoot for a successful takedown, and here's where Goldie is turning the tide here. This fight might be slipping away from the hands of Michael Bisping. Yes. At 134, though, Bisping works free and he stands up and Joe reminded us Rashad must be exhausted. Bisping needs to pour it on now. You guys trade some leg strikes, another leg kick from Michael, a right cross from Rashad, both really busy now

in this final minute, which I like to see because you guys look gas a minute before. From what you can remember, do you feel good at this point? Do which I like to see, because you guys look gas a minute before from what you can remember. Do you feel good at this point? Do you feel like you still have to win this final round? What are you feeling? I feel like I got to win. I feel like I still got to win. I wasn't even, I wasn't even really knowing if I was winning that round. I was just knowing that I just need to keep going and keep going. And I was gas, but I was like, I got to go until I hear that bell.

And I just wanted to keep him on his heels the whole entire round. Bisping stuffs a takedown attempt from you at 52 seconds. He lands two right hands as you're on your knees after he sprawled you. You go for another takedown and he stuffs it. And this is where Joe mentions Bisping's takedown defense is huge, but he's got to do something offensively to secure the win so that's pretty good analysis right there 30 seconds to go you trade punches and this is where you hit him with something goldie mentioned that biz pings right eye looks damaged after the

round ended we would see that he was bloody do you remember what you hit him with that opened him up i think it was like one of those overhand rights when i was coming in with a shot it was just like one of those looping ones over top but i think i'm pretty sure that's what it was like one of those overhand rights when I was coming in with a shot. It was just like one of those looping ones over top. But I think I'm pretty sure that's what it was. Look, if you're looking for optics as a judge, again, in a very close round, in a very close fight, that may have been huge. A nice uppercut from Rashad. A hard knee to the body from Bisping with 16 seconds to go.

Bisping yells a nut, lands an uppercut with 11 seconds left. And Goldie yells mouthpiece. Rashad, did you lose your mouthpiece again? Yeah, my mouthpiece came out, man. It was just kept coming out. I couldn't keep my mouth closed. Jumping around like that and mouth open, mouthpiece just fall right out. Well, look, this shows how great this fight was. Bisping had just kind of lit you up for about five seconds, but with five seconds to go in the fight, you secure another takedown before the horn. feels like it may have been just enough and a great fight um bisping's bleeding from the eye both guys look rightfully exhausted rashad you look gassed you kind of put

your arm up like you'd want it wow look at this sweat stain right here from before. That's pretty gross, right? That's pretty. Both guys exhausted Rashad. Joe Silva comes over and pats you on the back. What are you thinking as we head to the scorecards? I felt like I did enough to win. I felt like I've got the fight. Just the takedowns, I felt like I've put a takedown clinic on him. You know what I'm saying?

I felt like I was going for a bunch of takedowns, hit him with some pretty good punches. And, um, you know, I felt like for the most part, he was able to land some counters, but when it came to leading the action, I felt like I led the action. Very everyone's happy as we await the scorecards were shot, except for you. Okay. I'm going to be honest about that. Joe Rogan saying great fight, very tough to score. Dana comes over and shakes your hand and he's very prime 2007. Dana goes fucking great fight, kid. Great fucking fight. And you kind of no sell him. No love, no hug. You embrace Bisping. You

tell him great job, man. That's probably the happiest we've seen you. Dana goes over to Bisping. Good fight. Really good fight. But then he turns around and goes to Greg Jackson and goes, great fucking fight. So I think Dana believes that you've won this, Rashad. Yeah. Yeah, I felt like he thought I won the fight. You know, Dana always had like a little secret love for me, man. You know what I'm

saying? He wouldn't let me know how much he was feeling me, but he kind of liked me. Dana used to love me, man, a little bit. Go ahead. No, you're finishing. No, but I was going to say at that point after the fight was over, I was just disappointed that I didn't finish the fight the way I seen it in my mind. So in my mind's eye, I felt like I didn't win the fight

because I didn't win the fight the way that I see myself winning the fight. I didn't want to just get a close fight. I got tired of having these close fights. I really wanted to put them away. I really wouldn't want to put a stamp on things. Understandable because you're coming off that draw with Tito, where you feel like you just didn't do enough. And this is a huge opportunity in a big fight. To your point earlier, right before the scores were announced, Merguliada comes over to Bisbee and goes, you grabbed the fence, didn't you? I saw that. You may have saw it. He didn't call it. Well, I mean, well, first of all, he grabbed the fence three times and he said something about don't grab the fence and he didn't call it. He didn't

give him one penalty. But you know what, Dan? We cool. I'm not complaining about nothing. I needed that fight. I needed to fight just the way it happened, even though you didn't call it. But I mean, it's all good, man. It's all good. As Bruce Buffer enters the cage, Dana takes a little peek at the scorecards. And Rashad, you put on a white Assassin's Creed, the video game hat. Let's be honest here. Have you ever played Assassin's Creed? Assassin's Creed used to be my jam, man. That used to be my jam. I used to be a gamer back in the day. Back in the day, I used to play all the Assassin's creed assassin's creed used to be my jam man that used to be my jam i used to be a gamer back in the day back in the day i used to play all the assassin creed that's the game i will buy myself i used to love assassin creed all right we head to the scorecards 29 28 evans 29 28 biz ping and 29 28 rashad evans a split decision win you the biggest of your career

may be separate from winning the ultimate fighter tournament, but you don't look happy at all. We go to the interview with Joe Rogan. You say, I felt it went in my favor, but I got to give credit to Bisping. He came out here. He fought a great fight. My hat is off to him. It started off at some hype between us. And at some point it did get personal, but this fight squashed that beef and we remain professional. Rashad, you say that you controlled the pace of the fight and it's the takedowns that got you the win. And then tell me what's going on here. You're exhausted. It's obvious. You're a little upset that you didn't put a stamp on this fight and you break out a white piece of paper and you're stumbling through

reading your sponsors. There's a bunch of nutrition companies. What that you don't look happy to be here at all. Nah, I was, I was just a little bit disappointed in myself. You know here's the thing, man, like all through camp you know, I just knew I was going to destroy this guy and to make matters worse. Everybody that I trained with just knew I was going to destroy this guy. So every day, you know, everybody's, oh, you're going to kill this guy. You're going to kill this guy. You're looking so good. You're looking so good.

And then to have a performance where I didn't finish him, it was kind of like, dang, did I let everybody down, you know? And not to mention, you know, not only did I feel like that, I just really wasn't feeling my physical best. You know, I just didn't feel good. I was kind of feeling like I was, you know, a bit under the weather at the time. And I was just like, man, like, why was that harder than it should have been? You know, and I felt at that point, like, even though I did win, I felt like I needed to get a lot better because a guy like Michael Bisping, we can't be having split decisions. And at that point, I'm like, I need to recalibrate myself and really start taking things serious

if I want to get to the next level. That's what I felt like after I beat Michael Bisping. That's crazy, man. To be honest, Rashad, we didn't know at that point. And again, I'm telling you, I was a late believer in Bisping. We didn't know that he was going to be a Hall of Fame fighter. He looked for a lot of his career as a guy who is a well-rounded fighter, has a lot of really great attributes, but couldn't win the big one.

Anytime he'd put three, four wins together and stepped up to another level, he would lose. So I can understand your thinking in that moment. And to be honest, even though I thought you rightfully won two rounds to one, I almost feel like Bisping was the moral winner of this fight because, or not moral, what term am I using? I mean, there's like, yeah, like a moral victory because he lost the fight, but he neutralized a lot of what you do very well. And I think this was a little bit of a coming out party for him in terms of validation. He said that afterwards, he said, people were saying I didn't deserve to be in there with Rashad

and that I wasn't particularly good, but I think I proved that I was tonight. He thinks that he won the fight Rashad, but he said, obviously your takedowns were the deciding factor. I think I got the better of the exchanges on the feet with the knees to the body, but Rashad landed some good shots as well. He did take me down, but I was happy with my wrestling and takedown defense. I got up every time. I never took any damage. I think I canceled out the takedowns. It's fair, fair analysis there. You lost, but it's fair. Rashad, after the fight ends, you go back to the locker room. You do a quick two-minute interview with Sherdog that I found on YouTube. And you said you were thinking, oh man, it's going to happen again. When the scorecards were read, he's going to get another split decision that he doesn't deserve. You thought you won all three rounds and maybe you thought because you looked

fatigued, that's why the judges scored at least one scorecard in his favor. Yeah. I thought, I thought I won all three rounds. I mean, I thought I thought at the time, like he did get up in the second round and he did kind of, you know, was able to fight back a little bit. But it still it still didn't stop what was happening for the majority of the round. But after rewatching it again, I clearly see, you know, I definitely would have gave him the second round. You know, I could have definitely seen him win the second round, but I felt like I won the other two. It was close though. It was, it was really close. And I think that's another thing that kind of pissed me off about this fight

was, was like, you know, when you have a guy in the eye of the gun, right. And you know, like the guy feels, you can kind of feel when somebody knows where we're like that you can beat them you know what i'm saying like they they kind of know that going into the fight that you can beat them they feel it that you can beat them but then they go in there and they give you a good fight and they're happy with the fact that they gave you the fight that bothered me man because i'm just like i know i beat him but i didn't beat him good enough because i didn't beat the hope out of him you know i'm saying i want to beat the hope out of somebody i don't

i don't just want i didn't want to just beat them i wanted to beat them so they were like saying i never want to fight that guy again but after that fight i'm sure michael bisbing definitely would want to fight me again and i didn't like that i'm surprised you guys didn't fight again to be honest although like he moved down the middleweight long before you eventually moved there so maybe that explains it more but uh to the point Sherdog did ask you about why you look so happy and maybe about the fatigue you you mentioned not taking the best care of your body like you needed to during it uh they also asked you about a Tito Ortiz rematch you said look if it comes it comes it's not something I'm going to put my mind to that it has to happen uh We transition quickly, Rashad, to the post-fight press conference.

This was the era of the three-round non-title main events. The warlock Gareth A. Davis asked Dana, you know, could this have been a five-round fight? What would have happened? Dana says, damn, I wish this was a five-round fight. I like, I think we have to talk to the fighters to see if they want to go five rounds. I'm just a fan like everybody else. That would be fun. I don't have an answer for you on how we're going to get there, but I agree with you, Rashad, if this had been a five round fight, who would have won this? I don't know. That that's, that's a really good question to be honest, because, um, I was able to, uh, push the pace that third round and secure the final takedown. But I was done. I was like, you know, I felt as if like I was I was really, really hurt at the end of that fight.

And I don't know. You know, I really don't know. I definitely like to believe that I would have been able to do so. But, you know, Michael Bisping is one of those fighters, if I'm being honest with myself, you know, he really warms up in those fourth and fifth rounds. You know, that's when that's sometimes you get your best Bisping after watching him in the middleweight weight class and become the legend that we know today and a Hall of Famer that we know today. You know, he secured a lot of his victories in the fourth and fifth round. So it would it would have been tough. It would have been really tough for me to give the decision if it would have went five rounds.

It would have been a tough fight. At the press conference, Rashad, that he got death threats and people accusing him of fixing the fights after Bisping survived with the decision against Matt Hamill, which was interesting. He says a lot of people still don't understand how this sport works, but this was a chess match tonight. Rashad, they bring the microphone to you.

You say that's probably the best biz ping that has ever fought, but I think I did make a statement against him. And you were asked again, while you look so down, you said I hold high standards for myself and I feel like I didn't live up to my potential. And then Dana gets asked this. They go, Hey, Dana, what's next here? What's going to be the next title shot for Rampage? Could we see Chuck against Rashad next? And Dana responds with Rampage is out for a little while with an injury. We got some plans for Chuck, but we can't talk about him yet. We got some plans for him, but it won't be Rashad. And to give you a full clearance on what happened, Chuck was coming off the previous month, the split decision loss to Jardine, which of course he got knocked out the fight before by Rampage. The secret plans

that he talked about were just one month after this fight, when Chuck fought Vonderlei Silva at UFC 79, one of the best action fights in modern history, Chuck got the win. It was the last win of Liddell's professional career. And Rashad, you would fight him one year later, which would be your next fight, which would be the beginning of all things, the Sugarman taking over the sport.

Yeah, man, that was an exciting time, man. You know, even to be able to mention in a conversation of a Chuck Liddell at the time, and rightfully so, or even be in a conversation of, you know, people thinking that I can compete at the level was huge for me. I mean, you know, you're talking about a guy from Niagara Falls who who, you know, was always undersized and no one really gave a chance to even make it as far as I did in the UFC. And now was one of the top athletes in the weight class where he's undersized. So it was huge for me to finally be mentioned in a conversation. And that's where I felt like even though I didn't win the fight that I the way I seen it, I still was getting the respect that, that, um, that, that I felt like I deserve. Rashad, the New Jersey state athletic commission refused to release the purses after the fight, but Bisping's purse did come out years later when his former manager sued him, they went to court, the books were opened up. Michael Bisping made $212,000 for this pay-per-view main event.

Do you recall at all what you made? And let's remind people that you made something like what? 16,000 on paper against Tito Ortiz the fight before? Yeah, well, I think I got a backroom bonus that kind of evened me out to that amount. out but uh on paper what i got was maybe um i think at that time i was at 40 and 40 or something like that so 80 we're talking about a pay-per-view headliner here rashad can we get yeah a thousand please i know i know but that's i mean that's how that's how it was back in the day like you know't, until your contract was over, you were still under that tough contract,

and I was still under a tough contract. I didn't know if Bisbee got out of that tough contract, but I was still under the tough contract for a while. The total gate, 2.1 million for the UFC. And Rashad, this turned out, although it doesn't go down as a game-breaking pay-per-view UFC 78 doing 400,000 buys I mean if that happened today that's considered a you know a pretty big win I know it may not equal the Lesnar or GSP or Silva numbers from the same era but uh Rashad Evans proving along with a another marketable fighter next to him that you

could sell. And obviously you'd go on to do a million in the, I'm sorry, a million in the Forrest Griffin fight. You did a million point zero five in the Rampage fight, 700 against John Jones. But I think this was an announcement that, you know, Rashad Evans is a brand here. Yeah, I think so. And it was, I felt like the UFC were definitely getting behind me and they seen the value in me, you know, and they finally were starting to understand how to market me and get me to, you know, the fans that really wanted to pay to see me. All right, Rashad, you would go on to be a colleague of Michael Bisping

and you still sort of are today, first with Fox Sports, now with ESPN. And you specifically with Fox sat next to him a lot on that desk. What has been the friendship, the banter like through the years from this first fight, you got to give us something here. Yeah, we, we talk, we talk about it. You know, he talks about his one takedown he had on me. And then there was almost an opportunity where we were going to fight again

later on in our careers, like towards the end, it's going to be like a final fight for the both of us, but it didn't end up happening, uh, for whatever reason. But, um, you know, even, even during that time, you know, it would have been exciting to, to fight Michael Bisbee because at that point we became such good friends, you know, we just, you know, I can call him and joke about it and whatnot. And, um, you know, we, we would, uh, we, we spend a lot of time together at And, you know, we, we would, we spend a lot of time together at Fox. You know, we trained together a couple of times at, at Jay Glazer's gym at Unbreakable. And just, you know, we, we got to really know each other.

And after getting to know him, it's, it's kind of crazy because he actually became one of my favorite people in the sport. You know, Michael Bisping is, is one of the guys that I truly like a lot in the sport you know Michael Bisping is is one of the guys that I truly like a lot in this sport you know he's a good guy that uh inside and outside the cage and now that we're on this side of it you know not competing against each other he's even better we have a great time every single time we see each other Rashad this win would open up huge doors from you as we're going to continue this series we're going to get into the Chuck Liddell

fight the Forrest Griffin fight to win the championship, the Machida fight when the Machida era broke out for one night. But Rashad, you've beaten plenty of Hall of Famers in your run. Dan Henderson, Chael Sonnen, Rampage Jackson, Tito Ortiz, Forrest Griffin, as we mentioned, Chuck Liddell. Where does the Bisping win in retrospect? As you look back now on your Hall of Fame run, what does this victory mean to you? I will say it's probably right up there at the top.

And I say that because had not been for this win right here, you know, I wouldn't have probably been able to do what I've done in the rest of my career. You know, this was fundamental for me because, you know, you take two athletes who are going in the same direction. And, you know, this meant him going to his trajectory that that he went in and me going in trajectory that I went in. You know, for him, it meant for him going down in a weight class. You know, I think around after this time, he realized that he wasn't a 205 anymore. He didn't want to, you know, cut that.

You know, he didn't want to be outside or wrestled by somebody because he felt like they were bigger. So he decided to drop down to 185 and I decided to just kind of keep pursuing that 205. But it was a huge fight. It was a really huge fight for me. And it was a fight that was a very tough fight. And those are the fights that that you grow the most, the ones that you don't expect, the one that's just like, oh, my gosh, I didn't fool around and got myself in one hell of a ones that you don't expect, the one that's just like, oh, my gosh, I done fooled around and got myself in one hell of a fight, and I didn't expect it. Now I got to dig deep. And now the fight becomes about fighting yourself

and fighting the feeling that you want to, you know, the feeling of wanting to give in, the feeling of wanting to just stop and just be like, you know what, I'm going to keep on going balls to the wall. Can't wait to get into the next chapter, the shot heard around the world when you knocked out the great Chuck Liddell. A lot of more, a lot of more good Lord. I'm sticking in circles, a lot more fun stuff to come in story time with Rashad. Uh, please like, and subscribe to the video. So much fun stuff we're doing in morning combat three times live a week. A lot of fun bonus content going on Rashad Evans. It's always a pleasure of mine to relive the great

journey of the Hall of Fame career with you. Hey, BC, thank you for reliving it with me, man. It's good to go down memory lane, especially with someone like yourself, man, because you make it so much fun. I don't really normally go and watch old fights of mine because I'm not that vain, but you make it fun, man. And it was good actually taking this trip down memory lane. Shout out to Michael Bisping. I said, I've always been sort of against him. Looking back, man, he's the real thing. He's the real deal. He's a real

fighter. And he put up a great fight in this one, a classic fight, a pay-per-view main event. For the great Rashad Evans, it is your boy, BC. We'll be back again. But until then, we've only got two words to leave you with. Rashad, you want to do the business? Yeah. We out.