Ever wonder what it would be like to be famous? To have people recognize you and your achievements is a goal most, if not all professional athletes aspire to. In the second installment of my new Tales from beyond the cage series. we get a fun story from Rashad Evans, who found that the price of fame can sometimes come in the form of mistaken identity.
When you first get into the whole celebrity game, being in L.A and stuff, you start to see some of the guys you see on TV. So lo' and behold, one night I meet Jeremy Piven. Jeremy is into MMA and we trained together a couple of times and we became friends, he's pretty cool. So he has this party at his house. He has this jam session, and guys like Kid Rock come in, real musicians come in and hang out and they have a jam session at his house.
So I'm at his house hanging out and taking in the whole scene, and I see Common. I'm like ‘Aw man, this is Common. Common is my guy. I love the way raps, his style, the way he acts. All of that.' So we start rapping and we start talking it up, and he's like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah you're the fighter.' He knew all about the fighting thing, so I didn't really have to tell him who I was. So, we're talking about how he's from Chicago, and I'm telling him about my place in Chicago and how I've got family in Chicago. We're just kicking it.
He gets up there to do his rap, just a freestyle rap session with Jeremy on the drums and some guys playing guitars, and he's just killing a freestyle. Then he drops in a line, ‘Yeah, truest, bluest, I beat your ass like Rashad... LEWWWWIS!' He points to me, and I'm just like, ‘God damn.' I had my hands up like YO! He's on stage like, ‘Rashaaaad Lewwwwwis!' I'm like, ‘Damn, man.' I kind of slipped out the back after that. That is the tale of Rashad Lewis. I can't tell you how many times I've been out and somebody comes up and calls me Rashad Lewis.
You can follow Evans via his Twitter account @SugaRashadEvans