Jonathan Snowden: It’s not often you get to say “I told you so” in this life. For one thing, it’s tacky and fairly reprehensible behavior. People love to tell you when you are wrong, but no one wants to hear some gasbag bragging about the one time he was right. You have to pick your spots—and I’m picking one now.
The time for Jon Jones-Rashad Evans was last year. It was maybe even January, when the two men missed crossing paths by just a little more than a month. It isn’t here and it isn’t now. The magical moment has passed. And I called it last October:
…by the time the fight does take place, it will be a pale shadow of the feud that has captivated UFC fans this year. Evans, despite knowing how to sell a fight like no one else in the modern UFC, is trying to say all the right things. Through a spokesman, he told the press that he doesn’t even care if Jones is his next fight. He’ll fight whoever the UFC wants him to fight, whenever they want him to fight.
…The time to make Jones and Evans is now. Every delay, every interview, every need to let fans in on the behind the scenes machinations, is hurting the fight at the box office. Dana White takes great pride in making the fights fans want to see. This is that fight.
At today’s Press Conference, the two men who once went back and forth with the best of them could barely even pretend there was any animus. It’s been talked to death. If there was any doubt before, the grudge match is now just a match. And that’s too bad.