Rashad Evans on knockout loss to Glover Teixeira: 'It's embarrassing, it's sad'

Rashad Evans faced the music after his knockout loss to Glover Teixeira on Saturday night.

The former UFC light heavyweight champion knew what sort of questions were coming after being knocked cold by Glover Teixeira in under two minutes in the main event of UFC on FOX 19.

But while other fighters have avoided the media after similar performances, Evans showed up to post-fight presser at Tampa's Amalie Arena.

And as a competitor who has been known to wear his heart on his sleeve, the 36-year old Evans didn't mince words when asked about his fighting future after such a loss.

"I don't want to lose hope, I don't want to lose heart in fighting because it's what I like to do and I'm at a low right now," Evans said. "But at the end of the day something's gotta change, I gotta do something. It's embarrassing, it's sad, but, welcome to being a fighter."

Asked to pinpoint any particular mistakes that may have led to the loss -- Evans was crunched with a left to the jaw which knocked him to his knees, followed by a right to the face which put him out -- he said a change of stances at an inopportune time cost him.

"One thing I shouldn't have done, I shouldn't have switched stances in a defensive position," Evans said. "When you switch stance its usually to fire something right away or give a look and I switched stances against the fence an threw a punch that was just a touch and not to do any damage or even come back defensively good enough and I paid the price for it. Teixeira hit hard."

It's not like Evans has been on a protracted tailspin. This was his first stoppage loss since Lyoto Machida took the title from him in 2009. But he hasn't won a fight since 2013 and he's 2-4 in his past six.

All Evans knows for now, in the immediate aftermath of the knockout loss, is that he needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out a path forward.

"It's hard to know what to change after an embarrassing and disappointing loss. I'm embarrassed and disappointed and you know, it's sad, but, you have to go on, because this is what it's about. Its easy to fight and to go through it when you're on top and doing everything well, but the hardest thing is working through the disappointment, working through doubting yourself and everything else like that.

"It's not easy but I think given some time and deciding what's best for me," Evans continued. "Then I'll make the right decisions on what needs to change, but as of now it's not a clear decision I can say."