Hi everyone, the Count here. I’ve been asked to do another series of “The Count-down” for UFC.com. I really enjoyed doing this before my UFC 70 fight with Elvis Sinosic but couldn’t do it before my UFC 75 fight, as I trained out in the remote mountains in Big Bear, California, where we didn’t have an internet connection.

Over the next few weeks I’ll keep you up to date with how my preparations are going for the biggest fight in my career vs Rashad Evans at UFC 78: VALIDATION in New Jersey.

IT’S HAMMER TIME! OH, NO, ACTUALLY IT ISN’T

Don’t know if you heard or read anything about my last fight? It was with a guy named Matt Hamill? I won on split decision? Not everyone agreed with the judges’ scorecards? Ring any bells, anyone?

Seriously, a lot of people were looking forward to the rematch between myself and Matt but let me tell you, no-one was looking forward to it more than me. I felt I won the fight but didn’t perform to the best of my ability, so I told the UFC I wanted the rematch as soon as possible - and was ecstatic when the UFC informed me the fight was going to take place at UFC 78 on November 17.

I was especially happy that the fight was going to take place in America, because one of the things that has been said since UFC 75 is that I got a “hometown decision”, despite the fact the one British judge scored the fight for Hamill and the two American judges both had identical scores for me.

Anyway - I was really looking forward to the rematch and hit the gym hard, determined to really perform in the second fight.

However, my excitement quickly disintegrated as Matt Hamill decided to have surgery on his knee rather than take the fight on the November date. When I heard of his decision I was disappointed and was actually very deflated for a few days. I felt I was over-trained for the first fight and really wanted to get back in the Octagon ASAP - so I let the UFC know that I’d still be in the gym on the off-chance they could find another opponent for me for UFC 78.

It was actually really good, training on just fitness, and working drills with no specific opponent or style to train for so, fingers firmly crossed, I kept training as if I was definitely going to fight at UFC 78.

GOOD EVANS! Then I got a call from my manger Anthony McGann saying he’d received an email from UFC matchmaker Joe Silva. Joe said there was an opponent for me – Rashad Evans!