Once I Was a Champion Page #6

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about how he is or make him out

to be perfect, you know,

just because he was known.

You know, I want it to be...

I would like it to be told

how he really is,

without any B.S.

I told him, I said,

"look, I'm your friend,

and I'm not your drinking buddy,

so I won't drink with you,"

so I wouldn't drink

with him no more.

I wouldn't drink beers

with Evan.

And that pissed him off

a little bit,

but, you know,

it is what it is, you know.

I've been to bars,

went to get him,

pull him out of bars.

He'd slap me in the face.

You know, but then he got

emotional about it, you know.

You know,

and that was the sad part

about Evan, you know, was... he

was really, really struggling.

He was really... but if you tried to

put out a life preserver for him,

then he was Evan, you know,

Evan the warrior.

"I don't need help.

I don't need your help. "

I just told him, "listen, man, I don't

think "you'll ever quit drinking.

"Maybe one day, you know,

I was always afraid

"I was gonna get that call that,

you know, they found you dead

"of alcohol poisoning or, you know,

choked to death on your own vomit. "

And I said, "I'm pretty sure

I'll get that call one day

'cause I don't think

you'll ever quit. "

I said, "but I just don't want

to get that call

"that you killed a family of four on

the way back from a movie theater. "

I said, "you know,

it's not about you anymore.

"You know, your drinking's

affecting other people,

"maybe directly or indirectly, " but

nothing good's gonna come out of it,

and I don't think

you'll ever change. "

If I was to try to sum up Evan

with a word, it'd be really hard,

and I want to be careful too

because, you know, one word that

really comes to mind is "selfish. "

But I don't want to say selfish, you

know, when the gentleman is passed,

and it's almost like, well, I'm

putting him in a negative light.

A lot of great athletes

are selfish.

That's one

of their top characteristics.

Evan worried about Evan.

Evan did what even wanted to

do when Evan wanted to do it.

And that made it...

that made it tough

to get to know him

but also to like him.

You know, selfish isn't

necessarily a quality

that you're looking for

in a friend,

though it is a good quality

to have if you're gonna be

an athlete that has to take care

of number one.

You know, you talk about Chael

and team quest,

you know,

it's not a team sport.

Those guys have a team, and people

help you get ready for your fight,

and, in turn, you're supposed to

help them get ready for their fight.

Down the road,

that became kind of a rub,

especially, you know,

after he kind of won that title

and we were kind of in a negotiation

for, you know, he'd owed some money,

and there were some different

things hanging out there

that needed

to kind of be settled up

and how that was gonna work,

you know,

with the gym and with

the other guys in the gym.

I have an email

actually on that.

He wrote me back, "hope

your Christmas went well.

"Ours was good.

Training is going well.

"I have officially left

team quest.

"Money issues...

the issue being

they thought they were entitled

to a percentage of mine. "

It wasn't about any money,

okay?

Because Evan didn't care

about any money, okay.

But Evan's opinion of that was, "guys,

I helped literally build this gym.

I put the rafters up. "

Yeah, Evan didn't want to pay for

something that he felt he helped create.

Evan had showed up to

training on a few occasions

liquored up, smell...

you know, smelling like beer,

and, you know, we go hard.

Instead of asking him to,

you know,

slow down the drinking

or to, you know, curb it,

it got to the point

where it was just like,

"you know,

here's what we expect.

"And if you don't want

to do that,

you know, then it's probably

time for you to go. "

It wasn't what I expected.

I expected him to say, "oh, okay,

you know, "I'm willing to step up

and be a part of the team

and contribute. "

And it was like,

"yeah, you're right.

I'm pretty selfish, and I'll

just go do my own thing. "

I was kind of on my own

since I was...

in a sense

since I was in eighth grade.

You know, I had to...

you know, I made sure

I put myself

through the rest of junior high,

through high school,

got myself into college.

You know, I did my own laundry.

I just had to take care

of myself.

Him and his family, you know, his

mom kind of checked out on him,

and, from a very,

very early age,

they took care of themselves.

They had to.

So I think that lone wolf,

kind of all-alone mentality

came from that, a lot of it.

To speak to the specific timeline

of Evan, when he was with Curtis

and he beat Dave Terrell

and won

the world championship,

he was still at team quest.

He was just also with Curtis.

This is not a knock on Curtis, but

when he left quest and went solely

in a different route and he

lost the team quest aspect,

he lost the championship.

So he fought Terrell,

and he won.

I don't think he trained very

hard for the Franklin fight,

the next one, you know,

'cause then he had Franklin

right out of the chute.

I remember that he dropped me

in the first round.

I don't remember getting dropped

at the time

because, you know, Evan did have,

like, one good, heavy right hand,

and so, for whatever reason,

I perhaps made

the adjustments and whatnot, but

I do remember that it just...

it was like he was going back

to the same thing, you know.

He was going back to the well,

and the well was dry.

It just wasn't there

for him anymore.

Halfway through the fight, looking at

Evan's face and going, "oh, my God. "

You know, his face was all swollen

up, and his eyes were swollen.

He took a pretty bad beating

from rich in that fight.

He told me stories of getting

hit and his whole bottom tee...

like, a row of teeth

getting pushed back

in his mouth,

and then he had to stick...

push 'em back out

with his tongue in that fight.

I mean, I threw a lot of punches,

and it was just like... like, I hit...

I felt like I hit Evan with

everything but the kitchen sink,

and he just would not go away.

He was determined that he

was going to win that fight.

The winner of that fight would head

straight to Las Vegas the next day

and be the coach for season two

of the ultimate fighter,

which, you know, at the time, now

when you look back at rich Franklin,

that really turned rich Franklin

into a huge star.

So it was a big fight

for both of those guys.

And going into that fight,

I honestly had no idea,

you know, who would win.

That was a tough fight, but

then, you know, it was a fight

that rich Franklin

absolutely dominated.

I asked him how he was doing, and

this is what he wrote me back.

"You know, you asked

how I've been.

"I couldn't honestly say

that I've been well.

"I've been on the road

for almost a year,

"sleeping in spare bedrooms,

on couches,

"on the floor,

"wherever I could.

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