Everyone in the world is looking forward to next month’s fight between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans.
Everyone, that is, except for Greg Jackson.
Jackson was the longtime coach for Evans, nurturing him along the path to stardom and the UFC light heavyweight championship. That all changed just over a year ago, when Evans felt slighted by comments Jones made to Ariel Helwani during a television interview.
You’ve heard it countless times: Jones said he would fight Evans if Dana White absolutely made him—even though he wouldn’t really want to. Evans took offense and ultimately left Jackson’s gym in New Mexico to set up his own camp in Florida.
It wasn’t a pretty situation. It still isn’t. In many ways, Evans and Jackson grew up in the sport together, and you can tell from listening to Jackson in recent interviews that the split still stings.
But that’s not going to stop him from cornering Jones against his former pupil. Check out what Jackson told Helwani yesterday on the MMA Hour:
I felt I had kind of a duty to the team, Jackson said on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. What I mean by that is Jon Jones is on the team, Rashad has left the team and has made it pretty clear he’s not coming back. My personal feeling, if I wanted to be a little selfish, I would say, “I don’t want to deal with any of it. I don’t want to be there at all.”
But it has to mean something to be on a team. It has to mean something, and I felt I had a duty to do that, because Jon’s on the team, so it’s my responsibility to corner him. Even though it’s a really hard decision, I decided to go with it.
I sympathize with Greg Jackson. This can’t be an easy situation for a coach who prides himself on his relationships with the fighters in his camp.
That being said, he’s making the correct decision in coaching Jones against Evans. After all, Evans is no longer a part of Jackson’s MMA, and Jones is still training there every single day. If you pride yourself on a team atmosphere, you have to stand behind your team. Jones is still one of the leaders of that team, and Evans is no longer part of the picture. It just makes sense.
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