Two days before the most highly publicized fight of his career, “Sugar” Rashad Evans won’t allow fickle MMA fans to interfere with his mindset. Standing across the cage from Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Evans knows that he must focus squarely upon his opponent, not the opinions of others.

“I’m never gonna please the haters, and I’m not gonna try to. At one point earlier in my career, I did wish it wasn’t like that because I’m a likeable person. But I realized people are gonna hate me no matter what. My momma told me a long time ago, ‘not everybody has to like you.’ And it’s very true. I’m ok with that. I just gottta get back to doing me. Part of the reason I started standing up (and) banging so much was because everyone said all I do is lay and pray and I’m boring. So I said, alright, I’m gonna develop my standup, and then I started knocking people out, and it was all good. But then I get knocked out in one fight, and all of a sudden I suck. Then I go back to my wrestling and win, and everybody is like, ‘oh my God, all he does is lay and pray.’ I can’t win with these people. But you know what? If they’re gonna hate me, let ‘em hate me.”

“Sugar” will have the chance to win over his detractors this Saturday night at UFC 114 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

(Source: MMA Mania)