Wednesday’s UFC 145 pre-fight press conference was nearly devoid of the kind of intense trash-talking we’ve seen between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans over the past year, and for good reason.
It’s been over a year since Jones and Evans were first scheduled to hook up in the cage. Back then, the split between the fighters was fresh. The animosity was easy to conjure up. The wounds were new and the hurt feelings still at the forefront of their minds.
The chances are pretty great that, if they’d faced off in August 2011 when they were originally scheduled to, the level of pre-fight banter between the two light heavyweights would be at an all-time high.
But so much changes in a year, and with three days before the fight, Jones and Evans are simply tired of talking. They’re much more interested in the actual fight at this point. Jones seems to realize that Evans presents a stern test, but he still sees weaknesses that he believe he can exploit.
“I feel stronger and my technique’s getting better and cleaner. I realized the power of flexing your abdominals when you try to strike. I definitely feel as though I’m hitting harder,” Jones said in a press scrum after the conclusion of the press conference.
“And I’m excited. I wobbled Rampage a little bit when I hit him, and I wobbled Lyoto when I hit him. And I think out of all those guys, Rashad has the weakest chin. I think he has the weakest chin of anyone I’ve fought since 2010, and I think I’m going to exploit that.”
Jones has a valid point. If I had to point out one weakness in Rashad’s game, it would be his chin.
This is not to say that Evans has a weak chin because I don’t think that’s the case. It held up pretty well against Chuck Liddell and other lethal strikers. It’s just the one thing you can point to when discussing areas in Rashad’s game that Jones might be able to exploit.
We haven’t seen true knockout power from Jones. At least not yet. But we have seen a drastic improvement in power since he entered the UFC with a tough fight against Stephan Bonnar. And we know Jones would love nothing more than to finish Evans by knockout on Saturday night.
I guess what I’m saying is this: Nothing Jon Jones does on Saturday night will surprise me because I’ve learned not to be surprised by anything he does.
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