In June 2004, a young cat named Rashad Evans (just 2-0 at the time) entered an eight-man Gladiator Challenge light-heavyweight tournament, held over two nights in Colusa, California. Though the above highlight reel presents his three fights in slightly different order — the third match against Bryan Pardoe actually took place first, during the quarterfinals — it does an admirable job of showing how Evans used to utterly clown the regional competition in his early career.
Check out how he puts his hands behind his back against the hapless Hector “Sick Dog” Ramirez, or the classic Sugar-shake he does at 0:48 against Jaime Jara. Of course, Evans backed up the showboating by tagging his opponents at will and tossing them around like children. Evans was picked up for the second season of The Ultimate Fighter directly after this tournament performance, where he won the heavyweight bracket, doin’ his thang the whole time.
And FYI, the song in the highlight reel is “Sugar” by Betty Everett. Great choice, video highlight-maker.
In June 2004, a young cat named Rashad Evans (just 2-0 at the time) entered an eight-man Gladiator Challenge light-heavyweight tournament, held over two nights in Colusa, California. Though the above highlight reel presents his three fights in slightly different order — the third match against Bryan Pardoe actually took place first, during the quarterfinals — it does an admirable job of showing how Evans used to utterly clown the regional competition in his early career.
Check out how he puts his hands behind his back against the hapless Hector “Sick Dog” Ramirez, or the classic Sugar-shake he does at 0:48 against Jaime Jara. Of course, Evans backed up the showboating by tagging his opponents at will and tossing them around like children. Evans was picked up for the second season of The Ultimate Fighter directly after this tournament performance, where he won the heavyweight bracket, doin’ his thang the whole time.
And FYI, the song in the highlight reel is “Sugar” by Betty Everett. Great choice, video highlight-maker.
