“I don’t want to lose hope, I don’t want to lose heart in fighting because it’s what I like to do and I’m at a low right now. But at the end of the day something’s gotta change, I gotta do something. It’s embarrassing, it’s sad, but, welcome to being a fighter… It’s hard to know what to change after an embarrassing and disappointing loss. I’m embarrassed and disappointed and you know, it’s sad, but, you have to go on, because this is what it’s about. It’s easy to fight and to go through it when you’re on top and doing everything well, but the hardest thing is working through the disappointment, working through doubting yourself and everything else like that. It’s not easy but I think given some time and deciding what’s best for me. Then I’ll make the right decisions on what needs to change, but as of now it’s not a clear decision I can say.”
-A dejected Rashad Evans tries to make sense of his UFC on Fox 19 loss to Glover Teixeira and what he does from here during the post-fight press conference (transcribed by MMAFighting.com).
Penick’s Analysis: This had to have been an especially hard loss, given his desire to bounce back from what he felt was simply a poor performance against Ryan Bader last fall after two years out of action. There’s a silver lining for him here in that he was just beat by one of the best fighters in the division, so it doesn’t necessarily have to mean the end of his hopes for being a contender. That said, it’s also evidence of the ceiling he may be hitting at 36-years-old, and what he’ll have to figure out from here is whether or not he has it in him to keep trying to get back there if it’s unlikely to happen for him.
[Rashad Evans art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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