Evans Headed Back to Wrestling Roots

When he burst onto the UFC stage, Rashad Evans was pegged a boring wrestler by many fight fans and pundits. It was not a label that the season two winner of “The Ultimate Fighter” cared much for and after years of honing his standup skills, the former Big Ten wrestler leapt into title contention on the strength of a stunning knockout of Chuck Liddell.

If we are to believe the former UFC light heavyweight champion, his days as a standup artist have come to an end. His brutal knockout loss at the hands of current titleholder Lyoto Machida at UFC 98 last May opened Evans’ eyes and focused them towards the past.

“The loss has been a bit of a learning tool for me to see some of the areas where I was going wrong and things that I was doing, and getting away with them because I was winning, but nonetheless, getting away from where my game is truly at,” said Evans, who is slated to face Thiago Silva at Saturday’s UFC 108.

And where might that be?

“I’m a wrestler, I’m a wrestler baby, Michigan State. I’m a wrestler, that’s it. I can throw them hands but at the same time, I’m just a wrestler.”

While wrestling has always been his base, Evans has turned into more of a sprawl-and-brawl type fighter, a guy who will use his wrestling ability to keep the fight on his feet where he felt he held an edge against most of his opponents. It worked well against the likes of Liddell, Forrest Griffin, Michael Bisping and, most memorably, the head-kick knockout of Sean Salmon that has been etched into the minds of every MMA fan.

Evans knows he can’t just throw everything he has learned over the past few years out but he feels it is imperative for him to get back to using his base as the first option.

“I did pretty well throwing hands but I think ultimately it’s about how I mix up the two together. I can’t be just one-dimensional, I can’t become just a straight wrestler because pretty soon I will get exploited by someone that has a good takedown defense so I think I have to mix up the two and be very, very deceptive in how I do both,” he said.

It could be a tough transition for Evans, who has leaned heavily on Mike Winklejohn for his striking training. Winklejohn is Greg Jackson’s partner in Jackson’s MMA in Albuquerque and has played a big role in developing Evans’ immense talent.

Winklejohn recently lost an eye in a freak accident at the gym and the effect on the former champion was tangible.

“It was devastating seeing something like that happen because just knowing the kind of person that coach Winklejohn is. He has such a love and passion for the sport and is basically just doing it for fun, helping us out because he loved us –- and to see him lose his eye, something he will never be able to get back, is just so hard to see,” said Evans.

Losing Winklejohn’s services meant Evans had to change up his training camp. Spending the majority of his preparation time in Albuquerque has been the norm but with Jackson’s heavy workload, Evans decided his best interests would be served by spending this camp in Denver with Trevor Whitman, an associate of Jackson and Evans’ striking coach on the last season of “TUF.”

It may not have been the most fortuitous time to make a major change. With Silva, who also has just one loss, also to Machida, Evans knows he will have to be at his best if he wants to get back in the victory column.

“It’s damn sure a tough guy to get my comeback fight against but this is the UFC, baby, and in the position I am in there are no easy fights,” said Evans. “You know, Rampage would have been a very difficult fight for me as well to come back to. There are no chumps in my weight class, even some of the guys you might not think measure up to me would probably give me a hell of a fight just because they rise to the occasion.”