Rashad Evans Quotes

As far as the anxiety, I have no idea about it. I don't feel like I have any nervousness out there. I'm just a guy who really cares about being competitive and that's the bottom line.

How promising you are as a Student of the Game is a function of what you can pay attention to without running away. Nets and fences can be mirrors. And between the nets and fences, opponents are also mirrors. This is why the whole thing is scary. This why all opponents are scary and weaker opponents are especially scary. See yourself in your opponents. They will bring you to understand the Game. To accept the fact that the Game is about managed fear. That its object is to send from yourself what you hope will not return.

Every time I ran the mile I was aware of my own weakness, there was some opponent who could give me a hell of a fight, so I never went into a race with a sense of invincibility. I always had that feeling of fragility and nerves which made me run faster.

I have always loved to use fear, to take it and comprehend it and make it work and consolidate a situation where I was afraid and take it whole and work from there.

After I lost the first set, I was like, 'OK, I need to get help because I can't play this way.'

I'm sure the feeling of fear, as long as you can take advantage of it and not be rendered useless by it, can make you extend yourself beyond what you would regard as your capacity. If you're afraid, the blood seems to flow freely through the veins, and you really do feel a sense of stimulation.

In taking stock of ourselves, we should not forget that fear plays a large part in the drama of failure. That is the first thing to be dropped. Fear is a mental deficiency susceptible of correction, if taken in hand before it gains an ascendency over us. Fear comes with the thought of failure.

There's a ton of nerves for every fight I've been in; it doesn't matter if it was my debut.

Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination.

Half this game is 90 percent mental.

I think the biggest part of my game that's underestimated is the mental part of it.

I know if I want to have a chance to beat the top players, I need to be mentally ready for that.

When I go to competitions, I don't have so much confidence that I don't worry or get nervous about the other skaters doing well.

A lot of time I fight guys and after a few rounds, they accept my dominance. They aren't fighting to win anymore. They're fighting to not lose. I've seen it many times. It's very hard for me to finish a guy like this. He doesn't want to get hurt. It's normal. It's human nature.

We all have anxiety about things. We all have little insecurities, but eventually you have to face your fears if you want to be successful, and everybody has some fear of failure.

I never think: 'If I crash, I'm going to hurt myself.' I might think: 'If I crash, I'm not going to win.' Everything's about that finish line.

It's okay to feel nervous before a competition because it means you care about doing well.

The battle to win - on the pitch and in the boardroom - begins and ends in one's head.

I believe that some athletes have fear, but you have to work on that. Athletes can't have fear. Fear of what? Fear of losing? Everybody loses one day.

It's all a mind thing, just all mental. You have to know going into the game you have to play at a high level, as many minutes, stuff like that. It's just all mental. You get yourself mentally prepared for it and go out there and play.

I think something that has separated me from the rest of the competition - maybe it's just my way of thinking - I don't necessarily go into fights just wanting to win but to actually dominate. So when I don't feel like I dominate, sometimes I feel like a loser, I guess, you know, maybe in that perspective.

I used to struggle mentally in these preseason games because you know you're not going to be in there long.

I like to be nervous, as I push myself harder.

Learning how to compete is one of the most important things that an athlete can do. You can train as well as you possibly can and go compete and completely choke.

I try to cancel out every possibility of losing the fight, and this runs through my head all day long. I'm seeing myself become smashed in the face, cut, or being submitted or being knocked out in so many different ways all day long.