Rashad Evans: I’m not any less of a man if I lose

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans appeared recently onUFC Unfiltered with Jim Norton and Matt Serra” for a wide-ranging interview.

From 2008 to 2012, Evans lost just one fight, for his belt, going 17-1-1. He has gone 2-4 since, and now at age 37 is coming off a 108 second KO to Glover Teixeira at UFC on Fox 19 on April 16. He will make his middleweight debut at UFC 205 vs. Tim Kennedy, and is feeling positive.

I used to get so, just so into my own head about ‘I have to win this fight and this has to be this and this has to be this’ and, you know, so much about the results of everything that I kind of would give myself too much anxiety about it,” said Evans, as transcribed by Brent Cristelli for MMA Mania.

After I got knocked out by Glover Teixeira I got knocked out in like a minute-and-a-half and I’m just like overwhelmingly embarrassed, and then more importantly, just disappointed because this was the fight! That was the fight! That was the night I was gonna come back and I was gonna show the world that I still got it and, you know, they slept on me and everything, I was like that, and that was the fight. And I went and s*** the bed and I’m like ‘f***’, you know what I’m saying? I just couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t wrap my mind around it because, in my head, I just knew I was gonna win the fight.

I had to trust the fact that whatever has happened in the past and, you know, my depression after I lose, it all works out. It all works out no matter what, you know what I’m saying? There’s not a loss that I had that I can’t come back from, you know? And then from going through that experience to help me to understand that I can still go out there and compete. I can win, I can lose. But at the end of the day, I’m not going to be less of a man if I lose, and training myself to that mindset has allowed me to enjoy this sport a lot more.