By Thomas Gerbasi

 

Rashad Evans still remembers the first time he saw Brad Imes in the house the two would share during the taping of The Ultimate Fighter reality show. It’s a reaction many would have when running into the 6-7 giant.

 

“Wooooow,” said Evans. “That is a monstrous human being.”

 

And that was before he had to fight him.

 

But on November 19^th, after a trifecta during the series that saw him beat Tom Murphy, Mike Whitehead, and Keith Jardine, Evans would have to face Imes with a six figure UFC contract and the title of heavyweight Ultimate Fighter on the line. For most of us, it would be an ordeal best avoided. For a fighter like the 5-11, 224 pound Evans, it was a challenge, and he wasn’t intimidated at all by the huge height and weight disadvantage.

 

“It would have been intimidating if I didn’t know him,” Evans admitted. “But since I knew him it took a little bit of the intimidation factor off. I knew what he had to offer. I didn’t have to watch videotapes and guess about the little things that he does; I knew Brad really well just from training with him. I knew he was gonna be a new fighter when I fought him that night, but at the same time, there were a lot of things that he wasn’t going to be able to correct because he didn’t have enough time to correct them.”

 

From Day One on the show, Evans scouted his prospective foes, all of whom could have been possible opponents at any time. He was the smallest fighter among the heavyweights and perhaps the biggest underdog - especially after early evaluations - but the former Division I wrestler for Michigan State wasn’t about to mail it in. He kept at it, fought more than anyone else on the show, and won every time he stepped into the Octagon. And almost immediately after he and Imes fought their way to the finals, Evans had a surprising gameplan in mind that he was intent on utilizing on fight night.

 

“While I was still on the show I sized up everybody as far as the best way to beat each person,” said Evans. “Ever since the beginning, when I first saw Brad when he was on my team, I said ‘okay, he’s big, so if I had to fight him I’d rather box with him.’ Because whenever we wrestled and rolled around, he was really squirmy and big, and I would waste a lot of energy wrestling around with him. So when I went home, the first thing I did is go to the boxing gym to get my hands really good.”

 

You wouldn’t expect a former wrestler to trade blows with a fighter eight inches taller, and 26 pounds heavier, but that was Evans’ plan for victory, one that only got stronger as the two warmed up backstage at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, separated only by a thin, black curtain. Evans’ coach drilled and drilled his charge with a left hook, right cross combination that he was certain would work on Imes, and even TUF2 boxing coach Peter Welch confirmed such expectations before the bout.

 

“My boxing coach was always getting on me about throwing the left hook and then the right cross,” said Evans. “And it was funny because my boxing coach had been working with me on throwing the left hook, and when I was warming up backstage, the boxing coach on the show was saying ‘he’s open for the left hook all day because he’s throwing the jab lazy.’”

 

And once Evans and Imes got down to business on November 19^th, the Lansing, Michigan resident started working on finding a home for that hook, no matter what return fire he would have to take to get it there. Imes kept Evans at bay early on with an effective Thai clinch and knees, yet by the end of the round, Evans was landing the hook but just missing the finishing cross.

 

“Sure enough, it was open,” said Evans. “I was waiting for him to throw his jab lazy, and once he threw it lazy, I came in there with the left hook.”

 

In the second, the fast pace of the bout started to fatigue both men, and the real fight got underway as the fighters traded bombs with reckless abandon, much to the delight of the packed house. For Evans, it was gut check time, and his internal dialogue left no doubt as to what his intentions were.

 

 

 

 

“And he kept pushing the pace,” remembered Evans with admiration for his courageous foe, but even though his mind was willing, the 26-year-old’s body started to play tricks on him.   

 

“My legs started shaking and it was a weird feeling,” said Evans, “but I kept thinking, ‘you’ve got to keep going.’”

 

He did, and in the third round, the left hook crashed into Imes again, but this time the right cross followed a split second after it, and Imes dropped to the mat. Evans pounced, but was unable to finish the fight. Yet even as the two went toe-to-toe to end the bout, it was that knockdown that may have been the difference in the fight – not that Evans didn’t feel some butterflies before Bruce Buffer read the final scores.

 

“I didn’t know if I did enough because I felt horrible,” said Evans. “I never would have thought in a million years that I would have felt that bad in a fight because I trained so hard for it. Just the week before I was going 15 minutes hard non-stop, so I thought that I was in the best shape of my life. And I felt so horrible that I was like, ‘I don’t know if I got this.’ In my mind, I thought that he was controlling the ring space. I felt like I was moving away from him more than he was moving away from me. I knew that could have been a factor, and I didn’t know how they were gonna judge my knockdown, so I was nervous a little bit.”

 

All the nerves went out the window when the split decision was announced though. Rashad Evans was the winner, and a new player in the world of mixed martial arts was born. 

 

“It was a surreal moment,” he said. “I was like ‘I can’t believe I’ve done this.’”

 

It was one of those fights where you didn’t want to see either fighter lose, as both Evans and Imes left it all in the Octagon that night. And even back in the dressing room after the bout, the classy combatants were full of praise for each other – this after trying to knock each other out for the past 15 minutes.

 

“You’re going down to 205 right?” joked Imes. 

 

“Yeah, we ain’t never gonna fight again,” Evans assured him.

 

Of course that’s what Apollo Creed told Rocky Balboa in the first Rocky movie, and we all know how that ended up, but after a draining war with Imes and three previous fights in which Evans was the smaller man, the newest entrant in the UFC’s heavyweight division just might decide to take things down to light heavyweight.

 

“205 is the best weight for me,” said Evans. “To be honest I think I can win some fights at heavyweight and I would probably be able to do pretty good, but the truth of the matter is, I’m a light heavyweight and I feel that I will fare better there despite all the talent that’s there right now.”

 

And as a former wrestler, cutting from 225 pounds to 205 won’t be an issue. “I used to be a 174 pounder (as a wrestler) and I used to weigh 210 during the offseason, so I can cut a pound or two,” he chuckles.

 

Evans also believes a change in scenery will allow fight fans to see more of what he can do in the Octagon as well.

 

“At heavyweight I couldn’t go out there and fight my fight most of the time because I was worried about getting caught with something, mainly because of the size difference,” he admits. “Now I can open up my attack and probably have a lot more fun out there because I won’t have to worry about getting outmatched with size and strength.”

 

Well Rashad, you didn’t look too worried on November 19^th.

 

He laughs.

 

“I got a good game face.”