Evangelista comes to the ring to Rage Against the Machine, which has become something of a trend in the past few months. Jeff Monson at Sengoku3 against Josh Barnett, a fighter at the last DREAM show–can’t recall whom at the moment– and now Evangelista entering to RATM. Nam Phan is 25 and an up and coming fighter–three of his 4 losses are to some *very* tough opponents including Josh Thomson (who’s in the main event tonight), ‘Razor’ Rob McCullough and JZ Calvan. His other loss is to Nick Ertl by split decision.

Evangelista intro’d first and despite being a SJ local crowd doesn’t really pop for him. Phan gets a much better response, likely due to the large Vietnamese population in the area that helped make Cung Le a star.

ROUND ONE:

Phan also has a 3-0 record as a pro boxer. Despite that he starts throwing some wild punches, Evangelista pushes him against the fence and starts to throw some knees to the body. Evangelista gets a takedown and is trying to land some punches from inside Phan’s guard. Phan getting in a few of his own from the bottom. Phan trying to wriggle out and he improves his position but doesn’t get back to his feet quite yet. Phan tries to get up and Evangelista puts him right back down. Evangelista has landed 24 strikes in the first round compared to 6 by Phan. Evangelista lands another solid shot from the top. Evangelista trying to get side control but can’t do so. He’s back inside Phan’s guard for now, but neither fighter doing much at the moment. Evangelista with a little ground and pound now scores effectively. Phan may be looking for a guillotine choke but he’s in a lousy position to do so. Some more solid punches by Evangelista–Rice gives us the current CompuStrike numbers showing a 46-7 edge for Evangelista. Round ends and it’s an easy 10-9 for Evangelista

ROUND TWO:

Phan using his boxing skills at the start of round two putting together some nice combinations. It appears that Evangelista has a few inch height advantage. Phan has already landed more strikes than he did in the entire first round. Evangelista bulls Phan to the fence and tries for the takedown which is blocked for now. Back to the middle where Phan misses a big overhand right. Evangelista working behind his jab better, Phan leading with a straight right. For a guy with legit boxing training Phan is throwing some wild haymakers. Evangelista loses his mouthguard momentarily stopping the action. Evangelista goes for a takedown and gets it. Evangelista might want to keep the fight on the ground–he’s a decent striker but Phan most likely gets the better of these exchanges as the fight goes on. Someone is cut as Evangelista’s blonde hair turning a bright red a la Dusty Rhodes back in the day. Rutten suggests that the close cropped blond hair dotted with red looks like Dennis Rodman. From the position of the blood it looks like a cut on the top of the noggin from an elbow strike. This will be a tough round to score as Evangelista has controlled the 2nd half on the ground. Phan’s striking carries the round on our card with his superior striking 10-9. 19-19 to this point. Rutten makes the point that Evangelista walks crisply to the corner, while Phan is sort of dragging. Cut was caused by an elbow strike, shown clearly on the replay.

ROUND THREE:

Phan puts together some more nice combinations. Evangelista wisely tries to get the fight to the ground, Phan sprawls out nicely but gets caught against the fence. So far he’s defending well, and responding with some knee strikes to Evangelista’s body. Cut appears to be opening up again. Solid body shot by Evangelista and Phan felt that. Phan responds with a solid knee strike and then another. Phan’s crisp striking now giving him the edge. Evangelista tries for the takedown again but Phan deending well. Finally Evangelista gets him down, but Phan pops right up. Evangelista gets the takedown now and with two minutes left Phan needs to get this back to his feet. This was billed as a striking war but Evangelista has shown some impressive takedown and groundfighting ability. This will be a tough round to score and it’ll likely make the difference in the battle. Herb Dean stands the fighters back up and we’re back to standup. Phan’s strikes are so crisp and he’s putting together some really nice combinations. Evanglista misses with another takedown attempt and may be content to hold on against the cage as the round draws to a close. *Real* tough round to score, with Evangelista controlling tempo throughout but Phan possibly doing enough in the 2nd and 3rd to pull it out. The SavSci card gives round 3 to Phan, giving him a 29-28 win. Both this and the 2nd were incredibly close and could easily go the other way. Compustrike numbers show a decisive win by Evangelista….

Split decision:

29-28 Nam Phan
29-28 Evangelista
29-28 Evangelista

Unpopular decision with the crowd but based on the CompuStrike numbers he carried the fight. Throw in the 4-0 takedown edge and the way he controlled the tempo and hard to argue with. Main event up next…