Rashad Evans goes back a while with Kamaru Usman, to the days of mentoring him while with the Blackzilians in South Florida. Because of this, watching Leon Edwards knock Usman out cold at UFC 278 was hard to stomach.
And it was made even worse by the fact that the UFC Hall of Famer witnessed the shocking outcome while sitting next to Usman’s family in the front row at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City.
Less than 48 hours later, Evans opened up about the “very traumatic” experience Monday on “Morning Kombat.”
“Just being there was unbelievable, because I’m sitting right next to his family, and his daughter’s right next to me,” Evans said. “When that whole thing happens, you just hear this scream, and it was just kind of very traumatic. For me, being like a brother to Kamaru, just watching him go down like that, it just made me real sick.”
The real-time reaction from Evans, along with a host of UFC fighters sitting on the floor, was caught on camera. The video encapsulated the disbelief of Edwards, who was down 39-37 on all three judges’ scorecards, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat by landing a vicious head kick with 56 seconds left in the fifth round to win the UFC welterweight title.
Evans believed Usman would win at UFC 278, but he also couldn’t ignore what he felt.
“I didn’t think he was gonna lose, but sometimes you have – like when your friend or your family is fighting – you have an uneasy feeling,” Evans said. “And I had an uneasy feeling that I couldn’t shake. When that kick happened, those worst feelings, those worst things, those worst thoughts were just realized in an instant. It was devastating.”
The loss was Usman’s first in 16 UFC appearances and only the second of his career. Not since his second professional fight in May 2013 had Usman tasted defeat.
Usman (20-2 MMA, 15-1 UFC) didn’t speak with reporters after UFC 278 as he was transported to a local hospital. Except for a few social media posts, he hasn’t been heard from as of this writing.
Evans traveled back to Florida with Usman on a private jet Sunday and came away from their conversation feeling good about the now-former champ moving forward.
“I asked how he was doing. He said, ‘You know, I feel very blessed.’ And it was something that kind of took me by surprise, because I didn’t expect those words to come out of his mouth,” Evans said. “But he said, ‘I feel very blessed, because it didn’t go my way last night, and it was a very f*cked up thing that happened.’ He said, ‘But I’m glad. And I feel blessed that I get an opportunity to show everyone once again how great I am.’ And he said, ‘I’ll get to show my daughter what it means to fall down and have everything not go your way but then get up and still keep on going.’
“When he said that to me, it gave me chills, because that’s a perspective that you take once you have accepted it. … I feel like he has planted the seeds for a big return.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 278.
