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Rashad Evans talks Alistair Overeem leaving team

Rashad Evans talks Alistair Overeem leaving team

 

UFC heavyweight Alistair Overeem has left the Blackzilians team of South Florida and appears to be headed to Jackson/Winkeljohn's MMA team in Albuquerque, NM. Blackzilians team leader and former UFC champion Rashad Evans himself trained for years at the Jackson/Winkeljohn MMA hot-spot and doesn't seem to torn up about the Dutch fighter leaving the Jaco Training Center.

"It’s not a big deal at all to be honest," said Evans in a recent interview with John Joe O'Regan.

"Alistair was one of those guys who was on the team but never really committed to being part of it. He would run his own camps, bring in his own guys, train by himself, so him going somewhere else won’t make much difference, it isn’t a huge loss.

"The funny thing was, he would run his own camps and bring his own people in, then go out there and lose and blame everybody but himself. So now if he goes to Jackson’s and doesn’t learn to open up and step out of himself then he is going to get the same results...He just doesn’t trust people."

According to Evans, Overeem is not a coachable fighter and so, isn't a fighter who improves that much. "Suga" says that a great MMA fighter needs to live outside of their comfort zone.

"And at the end of the day as an athlete you have to be coachable. And being coachable is a humbling thing. You have to be like, ‘let me put aside all my own thoughts and let me hear what is coming in’. Then afterwards you might weigh up what you want to take on and what you don’t," Evans said.

"But when you come into a situation with a mind set on only what you want to do, only think what you want to think, then you’re not going to get any better.

"The thing with Alistair is he only does what he wants to do. He doesn’t want to get out of his comfort zone. He doesn’t want to do anything to get out of his comfort zone, even in training. He doesn’t want to train too hard or push himself too hard because it’s out of his comfort zone.

"But if you look at a fight, it is anything but comfortable. So when you’re fighting tough guys and you’re not willing to go out of your comfort zone, you lose."

Despite his criticism of Overeem, Evans insisted that he doesn't harbor a grudge against the former K-1 kickboxing champion.

"There’s no hard feelings, I just think he is always going to be that rolling stone," Evans claimed.

"He is always going to be in between places, trying to figure out where he belongs. And the problem is that when he gets somewhere that he may belong, he doesn’t open up enough or trust enough to really let a relationship develop."

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