It may seem obvious at first why Rashad Evans originally retired from the UFC in 2018. He hadn't won a fight since 2013 and he was starting to lose by knockout, something that almost never happened during his prime.
Rashad Evans ended up losing his love for the sport and wanted to walk away from the UFC. His heart just wasn't in it like when he was younger.
“Ever since I retired, I’ve been making my way back to MMA as far as my love for it and the feeling I had for it when I originally started,” Evans explained to MMAFighting. “Because towards the end of my career, I kind of fizzled out to the point where I really didn’t want to be in there. I wasn’t really connected to the fight. I really wasn’t bringing forth the part of myself that I know I can bring forth.
“It was bittersweet towards the end of my career in the UFC but through the years of training afterwards, I started to find that love again for fighting and fighting for MMA.”
Rashad Evans found himself physically prepared but not mentally focused. He came back to the UFC after a two-year layoff due to injuries and found that the love wasn't there anymore.
“That’s what led to retirement,” Evans said. “I didn’t feel like I could really bring it mentally anymore. Cause being a fighter, being physically ready is one thing but being ready mentally is a whole other thing in itself. Having the right ‘why’ you’re doing it is very important. When you don’t reassess that ‘why’ and you don’t have that focus on why you’re doing it, you can kind of get lost in the sauce of it all.
“If you’re not connected with the sport, it’s very hard to do because the nerves of it, what you’re getting ready to do, it starts to really weigh on you in a different kind of way when you’re not connected to the sport.”
Follow Us
Subscribe