Jon Jones and Rashad Evans will finally settle their score at UFC 145 on April 21st. Once a brotherhood between the two at Greg Jackson’s MMA, the relationship has altered and gone down two separate paths.
But like the old saying, all roads lead to Rome.
Very fitting in the sense that these two warriors, who have had different career paths, will ultimately throw down in the Colosseum of today, the Octagon. After a back-and-forth drama of betrayal and controversy, the two will finally see who is the better fighter.
Jones is the current UFC Light Heavyweight champion, and Evans is a former champ himself. The fight between the two is fueled by the hype surrounding Jones and their story of “friends turned rivals.” The variable in question here is if Evans has an advantage or not over Jones, since the two have trained together.
Evans is walking into the cage as a huge underdog according to oddsmakers, but in his eyes, he already has Jones’ number. Fans have expressed that Evans has the best chance of winning due to his time spent with Jones training.
Jones is one of those fighters, like Anderson Silva, who are very hard to emulate with training partners. Arguably, one of Silva and Jones’ biggest advantages is the unique and unorthodox styles that their opponents are not used to.
The support for Evans taking home a win is primarily based on his previous knowledge of Jones, paired with his own well-rounded skills. This, however, probably isn’t justifiably as important as people believe it will be.
Some feel that Jones will walk right through Evans; others believe that Evans will give him a run for his money due to his previous training with Jones. The problem with this is that they both have evolved since training with each other. Thus, this factor may not prove to be as significant as many think.
Evans does have some knowledge advantage, but at the end of the day, it’s just knowledge.
Vitor Belfort had trained with Anderson Silva a while back, and despite sparring and training, it did not help him in the least when they finally stepped in the cage at UFC 126. Both Jones and Evans have been training differently and getting better since the “breakup” and fans will most likely see two different fighters.
This fight is between two of the best light heavyweights out, with the fire of gaining the other’s respect back. You will likely see an even improved Jones, as well as a motivated and ready Evans.
The familiarity with someone’s moves is great to know, but it would only be significant if they had spent years training together, and did so up until a fight with one another. Evans has left Jackson’s MMA and been with Imperial Athletics and a whole new set of teammates and trainers. This is where the new Evans will shine through.
But will it be enough? The fans and media talk about how Evans has an advantage because he knows how Jones moves and what his strengths and weaknesses are, but no one flips the coin on the matter.
While Evans was learning about Jones, Jones was learning about Evans. The media portrays this possible advantage that Evans has, but never gives it to Jones as well. This is why this whole “Evans has his number” can be rather obsolete.
One can argue that because of Evans’ new camp, Jones loses that aspect, but Jones assumingly has not been on the same routine with the same people since Evans was with Jackson’s MMA. Jones is an ever-improving and evolving fighter. Evans may have the familiarity with Jones’ reach, but Jones is smart enough to not just rely on that advantage.
Both men should see a different fighter across from them when they go toe-to-toe.
This article is not to say Evans has no advantage or way of winning, though. Jones has earned the right to be the favorite going into this fight, but Evans poses a great challenge for him regardless of back story and controversy. He is very quick with knockout power and has a strong wrestling game. Evans showed his counter-punching well against Phil Davis and looked great against Tito Ortiz.
The long layoff made people wonder if ring rust would set in, but Evans proved he was still on point.
UFC 145 will be a night of great fights, topped off with a fan-pleasing main event. It is a championship fight between the former champ and TUF winner and the youngest champ in UFC history who is riding a huge hype train and deservedly so. It is a title fight that has a controversial rivalry and has been long overdue.
Jones vs. Evans has the potential to be either fighter’s biggest highlight of their career.
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