Rashad Evans battled ‘dark thoughts’ prior to first win since 2013 at Eagle FC 44

MIAMI – Rashad Evans snapped a more than eight-year losing skid at Eagle FC 44, and his biggest moment of adversity may have come before the fight.

Evans (20-8-1), a UFC Hall of Famer and former UFC light heavyweight champion, defeated Gabriel Checco (12-6) by unanimous decision in Friday’s light heavyweight co-main event. It was his first fight since June 2018 following a retirement from the sport, and first win since November 2013.

The fight itself saw Evans put his wrestling to use. He wore out Checco on the mat to net 30-27 scorecards from the judges, and finally his five-fight losing skid came to an end.

“It was a long time coming,” Evans told MMA Junkie and other reporters post-fight at Eagle FC 44. “I’ve dreamed about this moment many times since I retired. It just felt really good to be back out there. … It felt like it always did, but at the same time it felt different because I haven’t done it in so long. For some reason this is just a sport that you never get used to. You never get used to it. Every opponent’s different, every fight presents something different with training camp and the journey to the fight along the way.”

Although Evas kept his composure for the 15 minutes in the cage, he said he was at risk of losing it beforehand. The hours leading up to fight time were a mental battle for Evans, who said he endlessly pondered the potentially negative scenarios and outcomes.

“All day, it was just the longest day of my life sitting in that hotel room until 7:30, until it’s my call time,” Evans said. “It was like sitting in purgatory. I couldn’t really rest. I just stayed in that mindset where you’re just battling yourself the whole time, believe that you got it, but at the same time trying to fight off the dark thoughts if things don’t go your way. But things turned out good today.

“I’d be lying to sit here and tell you that the majority of my day wasn’t sitting in a hotel room thinking, ‘I hope I don’t go out there and embarrass myself, embarrass the team that I work with to help me get ready.”

Evans isn’t 100 percent certain about what his future holds. He said the primary motivation around this fight was to shift his end-of-career narrative into something more positive, and he did that simply by getting his hand raised.

Eagle FC co-owner Khabib Nurmagomedov told reporters post-fight that he’s interested in signing Evans to a multi-fight deal. It remains to be seen if that gets done, but Evans said he does have the desire to compete, so long as the circumstances are right.

“As of right now I’ll say yeah. I feel really good. That was a good fight but I feel like there’s areas I have to improve. I do undertstand that I’m 42 years old, but it’s a mental thing at the same time. I want to test myself, but at the same time I want to be smart about how I do it. This is a young man’s sport, it’s a young man’s sport in so many different ways.”

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