There’s a popular clip included in almost every montage on the forthcoming clash between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans which features the fighters together, eating and laughing like two brothers both dressed in green.
The video was shot in February 2010 shortly after Evans’ unanimous decision victory over rising star Thiago Silva. Over burgers and fries the boyish Jones shares a joke with Evans, his mentor and training partner at Jackson’s MMA.
Contrast that scene a year later. Jones becomes the youngest UFC champion in the organisation’s history. In his moment of celebration, as he gleams the gold on the belt strapped around his waist, Evans enters the cage to a chorus of boos. He stops and stares down Jones, who in turn squares up to the man he’s now destined to face. The eyes of the two fighters looking accusingly at each other: each blaming the other for ruining their relationship.
Since that night, what has developed is one of the most bitter and real feuds in the UFC. And it is clear that all the bitterness resides with Evans.
Two weeks before the pair are to finally meet at UFC 145, on April 21 in Atlanta Georgia, the show Ultimate Insider aired a sit-down “talk” between the fighters.
Responding to the drama that led to Evans leaving Greg Jackson’s team in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to set up his own camp, Jones said, “Greg, he said, basically, Rashad is always welcome back. You know, Rashad will always be like a brother to me. You know, he spoke so highly of Rashad. On numerous occasions, he really did everything he could to keep some type of rapport. On the other hand, you have Rashad, who’s bashing the program and the history.”
Evans snapped. “The history?” he said. “I made that history! What are you talking about? I’m the one who helped make that history! You’re the one who came into it. You came into it! Don’t talk about the history, when you have no roots in the history! Don’t talk about—I helped make Greg Jackson! I helped make him the reason why you even wanted to come there and train. So, don’t talk to me about the history of the team, bro! Don’t talk to me about the history of the program because, motherf*****, I made that program!”
Evans joined Jackson’s MMA in 2006, shortly after winning The Ultimate Fighter 2 finale. Two years later, he had risen through the division to win the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship under Jackson’s tutelage. However, the champion was unable to defend his belt and was knocked out by Lyoto Machida in his next match.
As Evans retreated back to Jackson’s MMA, plotting a second title chase, a new fighter had joined the gym. Another couple of years go by and Jones, on a tear through the division, is chosen to replace an injured Evans and fight Mauricio “Shogun” Rua for the belt: an event which set him on a collision course with his former teammate.
But Evans blames Jackson as much as anyone for creating the situation where the two would eventually have to fight each other.
“I told him that the kid was talented and that the sky was the limit with him, but that was the type of guy I wanted to fight, not train with,” Evans told Bloody Elbow. “After a while, Greg was so high on this kid coming in. I met Jon Jones and he was a very nice and very sweet kid, so eventually I said… let’s bring him in.”
But for all that, and even after the potential of Jones was becoming realised, Evans says he would not have fought him.
“That’s the funny thing about it. That’s the part where you’re immature and you’re young,” Evans tells Jones on The Ultimate Insider. “See, I would have never fought you. In a million years, I would have never fought you. I was gonna fight at 185. I was gonna do dream match-ups. I was only gonna try and help you become the best.”
That all changed during a fateful interview Jones gave Ariel Helwani shortly before his match against Rua. Helwani asked him if there were any circumstances under which he’d entertain a fight against his teammate. Jones replied:
“It’s Dana’s world when you’re a UFC fighter and we live in it… So, I respect Dana a lot, and if that’s what he absolutely wanted to happen, I guess that’s what would have to happen.”
Evans had gone through something similar with Keith Jardine, another training partner at Jackson’s, but through mutual understanding the two had never come close to competition. He says that he told Jones not to be baited by the media and make it clear he had no intention to fight him. But Jones, in his naivety, had accepted the premise of Helwani’s question and the line had already been crossed.
Since then, a petulant, bitter, resentful Evans has relocated his training camp to Florida and assembled his own team—the Blackzilians. Along the way, he has attacked Jones’ as “fake” and “arrogant,” and calling Jackson disloyal and hungry for the money.
For his part, Jones believes it was Evans who was guilty of disloyalty and turning his back on his team.
“I think Rashad took my interview—me saying I’d never want to have to fight him—and he used that to give himself a reason to challenge me for the belt,” Jones told Ben Fowlkes in an interview with SI.com. “Our agreement was to not fight each other on any accord, by any means. The only thing I said was I would never want to fight my teammate, and the only way it was possible was if I was absolutely going to lose my job over it. That’s a pretty major extreme. But he took that and found a reason to challenge me for the belt, which totally disrespected everything we stood for, everything our team stood for, everything that me and Rashad agreed to.”
The talking is almost done now. Soon the “he said, she said” arguments will be forgotten as the two men enter the cage. When that happens, Evans will be looking across the Octagon at his former teammates plotting his downfall. Jackson will be there. So too will Evans’ former striking coach Mike Winkeljohn. But the contender’s eyes will be fixed on his former training partner, brother and the man many believe could become the greatest light heavyweight in MMA history.
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