If things went according to schedule, Dan Evensen would be in Beijing right now, preparing to represent Norway in the Olympic hammer throw competition. But this 34-year old from Arendal has never followed the conventional route, never did what most would have done in the same situation. But when he steps into the Octagon this Saturday to make his UFC debut against Cheick Kongo, he says, “Now this is my Olympics.”
And he has no regrets.
Nor should he. Despite being six years shy of his 40th birthday, Evensen has packed a lot of living in so far, whether it was his time on his country’s National team for his hammer throwing (“Anything heavy, I could throw it far,” he laughs), a stint as a Marine Engineer “I traveled the world, only worked six months out of the year, I had a perfect life,” he said), or his eventual decision to lose some weight by training in mixed martial arts.
“I had ballooned up to 320 pounds,” said Evensen, who currently checks in at around 250 pounds. It was years after he quit competing in the hammer throw, even though he almost qualified for the Olympics and was expected to peak for the 2008 games. He went on to work as a Marine Engineer, where he lived the good life, but wanted to cut a few pounds from his 6 foot 3 frame.
“I ran into this shoot fighting thing and said ‘whoa,’” he said. “I always thought I could whip some ass, but I never really did. I tried it, it turned out I was good at it, and I just got addicted to grappling, and it took me all the way.”
All the way to Las Vegas
“When I left Norway, it was an easy thing,” said Evensen. “I had just met an American girl from Nebraska, and her being an ex-athlete, a college volleyball player, I just said ‘why don’t we sell everything we have and move.’ I was tired of working just to pay bills. I always wanted something else. So I sold everything, even the pictures on the wall and said ‘Let’s go to Vegas.’”
The dream was to fight in the UFC. But he would need a trainer as well as someone with an ‘in’ to the organization. Evensen wound up watching a Chuck Liddell fight, and he saw former lightweight contender John Lewis in ‘The Iceman’s corner.
“I saw him in Chuck’s corner one time, looked him up, found the gym, found an apartment close by, and I started training,” said Evensen, who moved to Vegas almost five years ago. “They laughed at me the first day. But after a while, I tapped a brown belt the first week, so I guess they saw some potential.”
By 2005, Evensen was fulfilling that potential as a talented and entertaining heavyweight. His record hit 6-0 and the buzz was starting to build, buzz that would presumably get louder after he would take out his next opponent at an IFC show in April of 2006. But then his opponent got switched on the day of the weigh-in, and instead of fighting someone he figured he would beat with ease, he would be locking horns with up and comer Christian Wellisch, whose next fight wound up being in the UFC.
“I wasn’t gonna pull out of the fight,” said Evensen. “But the day before I read a huge article about this stud. (Laughs) I was like ‘wow’ and then they tell me I’m fighting him. Well, I got taken to a conditioning class the next day. I kinda quit on the stool between the second and third round, and John (Lewis) did not accept that.”
Evensen got submitted in his next fight against PRIDE vet Dan Bobish, but by 2007 he had signed with the Bodog Fight promotion and he regained his footing, going 3-0 with two TKOs, wins which sandwiched a 54 second TKO of John George last September. Things apparently were going well, but then the company folded, leaving Evensen in a precarious spot.
“I wasn’t going anywhere, the company I was with went under, I couldn’t get any fights for some reason, and I was running out of money because that company made me quit my job and I thought I was gonna get on a roll, stay busy, and be a full-time professional,” said Evensen. “Instead, I almost went bankrupt. And being an engineer, I figured I’d just go back to work and maybe come back and fight.”
For Evensen, the dream was over. But then a month later, he got a call for a fight at UFC 87 against the highly-regarded Kongo. Just like that, ‘The Viking’ had returned.
“Everything turned out like a dream,” he said. “Now I’ve just got to go in there and win.”
That’s something the brown belt in kickboxing and purple belt in Jiu-Jitsu is certainly confident of doing.
“Everybody is saying he’s strong,” said Evensen. “You don’t think I’m strong? Like John said to me – ‘you’ve got options. This guy is just good at one thing. You can do anything and you can dictate the fight.’”
If Evensen has his way, he would like to get Kongo out of there while they’re standing, but he’s not above taking a submission win either – just don’t ask him to score the takedown to do it.
“Everyone got surprised when he (Kongo) fought Heath (Herring),” said Evensen of the March bout won by Herring via decision. “He took him down and didn’t do anything to him down there. I’ve watched that fight 20 times and I still don’t know what he was thinking. But the guy whipped up on Cro Cop standing up, so what do you take from that? The guy beat up Cro Cop but didn’t want to stand with Heath. To me, he’s got a suspect chin and I’m definitely gonna test it. The fight starts standing up, so I’ll test his chin, he’ll probably test mine, and if he’s too good standing up I’ll take him down, and I’m confident I have the edge there. It’s probably the smartest thing to take him down, but I’m not a wrestler. So hopefully he stumbles and I’ll jump on him.”
One thing’s certain though – Evensen won’t have a repeat of his loss against Wellisch. Win or lose, he’s going down swinging.
“I’m known for being entertaining, so I’ll crack some jokes, fight tough, and if I can get John’s respect back for fighting hard no matter what – and that’s what the UFC wants as well - then it’s a win-win for me,” he said. “There’s no quit this time, that’s for sure. (Against Wellisch) I felt like I let John down by quitting, and you can’t quit in this game. I had to gain his trust back again, and now he’s backing me. This time, they’ve got to kill me to get me out of there.”
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