Shirley Evans is watching the second season of the sports reality series "The Ultimate Fighter," which began on Monday, with great interest.
Evans' son, Rashad, a Lansing resident and MSU graduate will be featured on the Spike TV series this year. The show runs from August to November and is capped with a live finale determining who will get professional Mixed Martial Arts contracts with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
"He told me that he can't tell me if he got his butt beat," Shirley Evans said. "I tried to poke and pry at him from every angle, but he said I just have to watch the show like everyone else and that he has to keep it a secret."
Rashad Evans has been training to be an Ultimate Fighter since 2003, after he completed three seasons under wrestling head coach Tom Minkel. Evans said it was wrestling for the Spartans under Minkel's tutelage where he learned to push the limitations of his mental toughness.
"You would go all out, and then just when you thought it was over - then (coach Minkel) would make you give something more," Rashad Evans said. "He taught me to set no limits as to what I can do because there is no time to give more effort when it's over."
Spartans assistant coach Roger Chandler worked a lot with Rashad Evans while he was at MSU and said he could always count on Evans to show up, no matter what the situation.
"He's a very accountable person," Chandler said. "The story behind him is we recruited him, (MSU assistant coach) Dave Dean called him and went on a home visit, and we thought he was coming to MSU."
Unanswered calls and no word back left Chandler to believe Rashad Evans wasn't going to show up to wrestle at MSU.
"Then, about two weeks before school started, he showed up with two garbage bags full of his stuff, and his cousin was there to drop him off," Chandler said. "He had never been to MSU and just showed up."
A native of Niagara Falls, N.Y., Rashad Evans credits his mother with instilling him with the responsibility and drive to compete as an athlete. Coming from a low-income neighborhood in Niagara also helped to make Rashad Evans a laid-back person, which is why Chandler said he is somewhat surprised he wanted to do something like "The Ultimate Fighter."
"He's really not the fighting type," Chandler said. "He's not an in your face guy, like some of the other fighters."
To get on the show, Rashad Evans had to send in a video tape of himself and have drug tests and a health check done. He said a big reason why he was selected after going through all of that was his personality.
At 5-foot-11, 225-pound Rashad Evans competed on the show in the heavyweight division, which includes fighters between 206 to 265 pounds. The show consists of nine of the best welterweights and nine of the best heavyweights from across the country.
The Ultimate Fighter bouts last three rounds, each one going five minutes long, which Rashad Evans said is the perfect amount of time to challenge the fighters and pick a winner.
"The odd number of rounds leaves no doubt as to who the winner is - if there is a tie after two rounds, then the third round is the tiebreaker," Rashad Evans said.
All of the shows and fights took place in Las Vegas and although there were no big crowds for the fighters during the tapings, Rashad Evans loves the atmosphere of the events, and he thinks the sport will only continue to grow.
"It's exciting out there," Rashad Evans said. "A lot of the guys from last season's show are doing commercials. If can definitely grow into something bigger and there are better things to come for the sport."
