Jon Jones faces perhaps the most difficult task of his career as he prepares to fight his former training partner Rashad Evans.
The bitter rivals share a past that saw them train alongside each other at Greg Jackson’s gym in New Mexico. They have since gone their separate ways.
Their experience at the New Mexico-based gym might have been beneficial for both fighters, but Jones told LondonFreePress.com that it won’t give Evans a clear advantage over him on April 21st.
“Rashad talks about the time he held me down in practice and how he was getting me to break mentally,” Jones said. “He’s talking about a fighter that in training in 2010 he used to beat. In 2011, I wasn’t the same fighter and I was starting to beat him. And with that same work ethic in 2012, you’re going to see I’m not that same kid he held down in practice.”
Prior to their upcoming title bout at UFC 145, Jones was still a prospect in the light heavyweight division and he was still an inexperienced fighter under the tutelage of coach Greg Jackson and fellow fighters like Evans and UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre.
However, an injury to Evans allowed the 24-year-old to step in and challenge for the UFC light heavyweight title last year. Jones would deliver one of the defining performances of his career as he dominated then-champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua to be crowned the new UFC light heavyweight champion.
Evans has attempted to get under the champion’s skin, but Jones said he isn’t phased by the trash-talk and believes it will only make Evans look foolish.
“I love that he talks so much crap because the more crap he talks, the sillier he’s going to look when he loses that fight,” he said.
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