Former UFC light heavyweight champion “Suga” Rashad Evans (15-1-1) is suffering through some personal turmoil over the past several weeks. The issues he’s having isn’t news, as every mixed martial arts news service has focused on his split with Greg Jackson’s camp and his feelings toward former teammate Jon Jones.
Now that Jones has been crowned the new UFC champ after defeating Mauricio “Shogun” Rua this past weekend, the promotion has set the wheels in motion pitting both Jones and Evans into a title match
Through all of this, Evans has gone on to say that he is still friends with both Jackson and Jones, but feels that he’s been “disrespected on many levels” which is one of the reasons he’s left Team Jackson to form his own camp in Florida.
In an interview with BloodyElbow.com, Evans talked about the situation in length. We’ve included a small quote from that interview and recommend checking out the whole article to better understand Evans position.
“I have a lot of motivation (on facing Jones). I feel disrespected on many levels and the worst part is that it comes from people who I felt were like family. I would have done anything for Greg Jackson, and I would still do anything for Greg Jackson but I felt disrespected beyond belief. I feel disrespected by Jon because when I think about when we trained or when we were chilling, was the s**t even real? Or was he just trying to be a master manipulator and try to manipulate the situation so he could get what he wanted out of it? I don’t know and that is a question that I have in my mind but when I get down to it…that doesn’t even matter because we are going to get in there and we are going to fight. People want to say “oh my God Jon is this and that” but Jon Jones is Jon Jones to me. He’s another fighter I have to face. I’ve seen them all and I’ve trained with the best. I’ve seen all the shades of greatness and how this one was supposed to do this and this one was supposed to do that. It’s all the same and it doesn’t even matter.”