After 2 straight losses in the Octagon, UFC 155lb fighter and Oregon native Evan Dunham came back and earned himself a huge win with a dominating 3 round decision over Shamar Bailey at UFC Fight Night in New Orleans Sept 17th. A couple days after the fight, Evan spoke with NW Fightscene's Spaniard about overcoming his UFC losses, his preparation and performance in the Bailey fight, and on how the Oregon Ducks football team helped him in getting his win...

NW Fightscene: After the back to back losses, what did you do mentally to keep your head up?
Evan Dunham: After the two losses, it was definitely tough on me mentally. For a long time, I really did believe that I did lose two fights. But recently, I rewatched that Sherk fight a few times and I don't feel that I lost that fight anymore. So I really feel that I was coming off of one loss. However, on my record is says two and everybody is treating it as two. It was tough definitely to get eleven wins in a row and then lose two in a row. But over time I learned to deal with it. And it just kind of motivated me more for this fight. It was definitely rough going but that's part of the sport and you just got to get through that sort of stuff. You know you're a good fighter and you know you're able to win a lot of fights, and you lose some fights. That's just how it goes. It motivated me to go into this fight and do what I needed to do.

NWFS: Now you have a really good camp and are always around big names. Did you have any conversations with these guys about what it's like to lose and then get back on a winning streak?
Dunham: Oh yeah, every single one of them. They're all very supportive. And several of them have taken losses that I don't believe they lost either. They don't show it very much and they don't let it get to them. They know what they're capable of. So they just told me to keep my head up and keep doing what I was doing, and success is down the road. So that's exactly what I did.

NWFS: In the comeback win with Shamar, your boxing looked amazing. You used that 1-2 and kept going to it. Talk about getting ready for this fight and your boxing.

Dunham: For this camp, I actually shortened my camp up a bit. I usually do 12 week camps. This time I did an 8 week camp. And the reason for that is because I'm not the kind of guy who is ever out of the gym. I'm always in the gym trying to improve. That's what I do for fun. So I shortened up my camp and switched a few things. I started working with Ray Sefo for my stand up and I cant say enough about Ray. He's really helped me a lot and he fits my style really well. He was able to watch Shamar fight I think it was one time and he really kind of broke him down for me and we came up with a good game plan. And that game plan just worked exactly the way we wanted it to. It was a shorter camp which allowed my body to recover and I didn't feel nearly as broken down. I had my legs under me so I was able to move the way I wanted to, which was kind of an issue the fight before that. So preparation was a little shorter but just as intense. It went great. It was the best I've ever felt going into a fight.

NWFS: You had great takedown defense as well. Who were you prepping with to get ready for that?
Dunham: There's a ton of guys down here. Michael Chandler, he's a great wrestler. Got a big fight coming up. I use Martin Kampmann a whole lot. I train a lot with him. He's very talented in every aspect of the game. A lot of people think he's just a standup guy and he's really not. He's got great takedowns and great ground. Tyson Griffin's brother, Kyle Griffin, phenomenal wrestler from Oklahoma State. He's out here nowadays. He's just a great wrestler so I worked a lot with him. He's about Shamar's size, maybe a little bit bigger. So he gave me a really good feel for what I would see in there. Also, Steve Lopez. Just to name a few. There's plenty more, those are just the ones off the top of my head.

NWFS: Were you surprised at all that Shamar stood in the pocket and wanted to trade with you?
Dunham: You know, I was and I wasn't. Originally I thought it was going to be an all standup fight. I was very confident in my ability to shuck his takedowns. I knew if I could really stuff his takedowns, he'd have no option but to stand with me and that was more or less my game plan from the very beginning. After I stuffed a few and started standing more, I wasn't too surprised because I also think he wanted to make a statement showing that he wasn't a one-trick pony and would just kind of hold you down all the time. So I think that was an opportunity for him to kind of show his standup after he realized he wasn't going to be very successful in getting me to the ground. Plus I don't know how eager he was to go the ground. Even if he got me down, I was confident in my ability to sweep and get on top and cause problems there.

NWFS: After a big win like this, how are you feeling and how's your body?
Dunham: Oh fine. No injuries at all. My hand's a little bit swollen. That's pretty much the only damage I took was my hand hitting his face. Yeah, I feel fine. I feel great. I feel like I could jump right back into the gym but my new mentality is to let my body heal and give it recovery time. And that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to force myself to take a week off and then I'm going to get back into the gym at Drysdale's [Drysdale Jiu Jitsu] and at Randy's [Xtreme Couture], and just start back to work with Ray and those guys.

NWFS: They say you learn more from a loss, but after a really big win like that what do you take back to the drawing board?
Dunham: My standup felt great but there were a couple issues that I had with my striking that I need to improve on. And Ray was able to point those out. We're going to get back to the book and work on those. So I definitely feel like I learned some lessons when it comes to the standup. Besides that, I felt great. My cardio was good. I felt like I could have gone another 2 rounds, 3 rounds no problem. The biggest lessons learned were just some very small fundamentals in my striking that I need to improve on.

NWFS: The Lightweights are always a tough, tough division. If you could pick your next tough fight, who would be your ideal guy to fight?
Dunham: You know, I never really call anybody out or anything like that. I'm just going to leave that up to them. Whoever they throw my way, I'm definitely more than happy to take. I'm just happy to be part of the division. I know everybody thinks the same thing of their own division but I truly believe the 55 division in the UFC is probably the toughest one out there right now. There are ten guys in my opinion that are all very capable in getting that title shot here in the next couple of years. Just to be a part of it, its awesome. I plan on being there and staying there for awhile.

NWFS: Anyone you'd like to give thanks to or a shout out to?
Dunham: Definitely. First and foremost, to all my fans, especially all my fans in the Northwest. I love all my fans there. They were really supportive, especially through the tough times. After a long layoff and two losses, you really saw who was behind you at that point. So I want to thank all them. Also my sponsors: Headrush, Sprawl, SE Solutions, and The Gun Store. And I gotta thank Ray Sefo. Ray helped me out so much. And I've been working over at [Robert] Drysdales. He's been helping me a lot. Those guys are great. They've helped me a ton.  It was good weekend for all Oregonians. Our Ducks won! I was really happy about that. That was the silver lining to the night.

NWFS: They won by absolute murder.
Dunham: Yeah, they just destroyed them. I was trying to keep up on it before my fight. In between warming up, I'd run over and check my phone and we were just killing them. So that was a little bit of a confidence builder there.

NWFS: That's interesting to know that you're watching that right before your fight. Dunham: Yeah, I have an app on my phone that gives me live feedback  so I was definitely up to date right until I went out there.

NWFS: Well, congratulations on the victory. I appreciate you taking the time to speak with NW Fightscene. As always, we're behind you and pulling for you. 

Dunham: Thanks Spaniard, I appreciate it. And thank you for all your hard work, you represent the Northwest very well so I appreciate that.

NWFS would like to thank Evan for taking the time to speak with us. He'll be back up in the Northwest to give an MMA seminar on Sunday October 2nd at Midtown MMA in Springfield, Oregon. He'll also be making an appearance at the Midtown Throwdown 2 on Sat Oct 1st happening at the Lane County Fairgrounds in Eugene. More info on both the seminar and fights at midtownmma.com.

Evan is all over the web with a website at dunhammma.com, on twitter at @evandunham155, and on facebook with a personal profile and a fan page.