Published: September 08, 2008 12:35 am         

MMA: Evans stuns Liddell with knockout

Rashad Evans’ coach insisted he had the plan to put Chuck Liddell.

Come to find out, he was right.

Rather than charging at the former light heavyweight champion in Sunday morning’s UFC 88, Evans waited for Liddell to come to him, taking a number of punches, but delivering the biggest one back — knocking Liddell out in the second round and stunning Atlanta’s Philips Center.

“My coach, Mike Winklejohn, we went over that overhand right over and over again,” Evans said after. “He said, ‘this is the one that’s going to put Chuck down.’ It hit hard, but I didn’t know. It happened just the way he said it would happen. I’m just very happy.”

For Evans, the victory kept him undefeated at 17-0-1 and pushed him into a possible title bout. In fact, the question of battling Forrest Griffin for the light heavyweight crown came up after the victory, but Evans didn’t bite, saying he hadn’t entertained the idea.

“I’m exciting, but I’m still living in the moment right now,” Evans said. “I haven’t even put any thoughts to that right now. A title fight is just another fight.”

As for Liddell, the loss was a crushing blow in his attempt to regain his crown. Now 38, Liddell had hoped a big victory would put him back on a card with Griffin in the near future.

Now, many think Liddell will contemplate retirement, even though he said he was OK following the knockout.

“I’m fine. I got caught. What do you want me to say?” Liddell said. “I’ll take a little while. I’ve always said I’ll decide about retiring in the training room, not after a fight. I thought we had a good gameplan. Obviously, I didn’t execute very well.

“(The title) is still my goal, but obviously it’s going to take a little longer now.”