Jeremy Botter: I’ve traveled across much of the world over the past three years, flitting here and there to cover Ultimate Fighting Championship events. The mystery of the thing started to wear off roughly around UFC 116. Don’t get me wrong – this is a…
Jeremy Botter: I’ve traveled across much of the world over the past three years, flitting here and there to cover Ultimate Fighting Championship events. The mystery of the thing started to wear off roughly around UFC 116. Don’t get me wrong – this is a fantastic job, and I feel privileged to do it every time I leave for the airport, both coming and going.
What I’m trying to say, I guess, is that it’s been a long time since a UFC main event truly captured my attention the way that this grudge fight between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans has. I’ve wanted to see this fight ever since Jones won the belt, mostly because there are so many interesting storylines going into it. I don’t need to rehash them here. It’s just an intriguing thing on so many different levels.
So yeah, I’m pretty excited about this fight. I just arrived in Atlanta, where I’ll spend the week covering the event with fellow Caged In correspondent Jonathan Snowden. We’re going to provide you with a ton of written content from this week, to be sure, but we’re also going to provide you plenty of video as well. Stay tuned for that stuff starting tomorrow.
What’s this you’re reading, then? It’s our little behind-the-scenes diary of a UFC fight week. Jonathan and I will take you behind the scenes and bring you the little encounters that you don’t see in stories or on video. We’ll update this UFC 145 Fight Week Diary with anecdotes and stories that don’t warrant their own post, and we’ll post the occasional photo of cool stuff you might be interested in.
You can bookmark this post to see the latest updates, or just follow us on Twitter: @jeremybotter and @mmaencyclopedia, respectively.
UFC 145 Fight Week has kicked off in Atlanta, and Caged In authors Jeremy Botter and Jonathan Snowden are in Atlanta to bring you all of the action.In this UFC 145 Fight Week diary, the boys will bring you small stories, photos and videos of all the ha…
UFC 145 Fight Week has kicked off in Atlanta, and Caged In authors Jeremy Botter and Jonathan Snowden are in Atlanta to bring you all of the action.
In this UFC 145 Fight Week diary, the boys will bring you small stories, photos and videos of all the happenings during one of the UFC’s most anticipated events of the year. The goal is to give you, the reader at home, a small look behind the scenes at all of the media events and fighter interactions that you don’t see at home.
You may bookmark this post for the latest updates, or follow Jeremy and Jonathan on Twitter for updates.
At this point, everything that Jon Jones has to say about his rivalry with Rashad Evans has been said (and said, and said). But with less than a week remaining until their looooong-awaited showdown, we wanted to get a better sense of Bones’s mindset heading into his third light-heavyweight belt-defense at UFC 145. CagePotato video-correspondent Sal Mora spent a few minutes with the champ at his Jackson’s MMA homebase in Albuquerque for an exclusive fight-week interview that you can watch after the jump. Some highlights…
– On the possibility of a reconciliation with Evans after the fight: “I honestly don’t know what will go on after the fight, but I really don’t have any interest in becoming friends with Rashad again. I’m not here to make friends, I’m here to do a job.”
– On moving to heavyweight: “I did ask Dana White, ‘Can I get a fight at heavyweight at the end of this year?’ and he told me that he didn’t think that was best for me right now. I’m totally okay with where I’m at and competing at the light-heavyweight division. I think there’s a lot of great competition left…I’m sure guys like Lyoto [Machida] are gonna be coming back around for their rematches too, so everything’s going according to plan.”
At this point, everything that Jon Jones has to say about his rivalry with Rashad Evans has been said (and said, and said). But with less than a week remaining until their looooong-awaited showdown, we wanted to get a better sense of Bones’s mindset heading into his third light-heavyweight belt-defense at UFC 145. CagePotato video-correspondent Sal Mora spent a few minutes with the champ at his Jackson’s MMA homebase in Albuquerque for an exclusive fight-week interview that you can watch after the jump. Some highlights…
– On the possibility of a reconciliation with Evans after the fight: ”I honestly don’t know what will go on after the fight, but I really don’t have any interest in becoming friends with Rashad again. I’m not here to make friends, I’m here to do a job.”
– On moving to heavyweight: “I did ask Dana White, ‘Can I get a fight at heavyweight at the end of this year?’ and he told me that he didn’t think that was best for me right now. I’m totally okay with where I’m at and competing at the light-heavyweight division. I think there’s a lot of great competition left…I’m sure guys like Lyoto [Machida] are gonna be coming back around for their rematches too, so everything’s going according to plan.”
– On Alistair Overeem and the performance-enhancing drug crisis in MMA: “I’ve never seen anyone here at Jackson’s MMA participate in any type of steroid use. I don’t know anybody on our team that could possibly be taking steroids. And as far as Alistair Overeem, that’s really his problem. Steroids is unfortunately a part of all sports and he was just the one that got caught…It’s really not my world, I’ll compete against someone on steroids any day. I believe in some cases that people who abuse steroids have weakness in their hearts, you know, they don’t believe in working hard. I’m not against steroids, I think in some cases you need steroids, like if you’re an older gentlemen, or you have some type of illness or something like that, but when an athlete abuses it, I mean that’s their business.”
– On where he’ll be in five years: ”I see myself continuing to work hard, continuing to try to strive to solidify a place in the history books of the sport.”
Fight fans love to see a contest when both opponents greatly appreciate and admire each other. This is not that fight. Even though fight experts have this pegged as a relatively easy win for the champion, this bout between Jon Jones and Rashad&nbs…
Fight fans love to see a contest when both opponents greatly appreciate and admire each other. This is not that fight.
Even though fight experts have this pegged as a relatively easy win for the champion, this bout between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans will feature more than its fair share of surprises.
The war of words between Jones and Evans has been fast and furious, and some of the talk between these two could even make Muhammad Ali blush. Real or manufactured, the verbal battle has caught the attention of many fight fans, and when the two lock up for the Light Heavyweight Championship this Saturday, it will be must-see.
On paper, Jones has everything in his favor. Youth, size and reach are all huge advantages for the man they call “Bones,” but don’t make the mistake of discounting the skill level of Rashad Evans.
Evans is a legit wrestler with excellent takedowns and competent stand-up, and he should be Jones’ biggest challenge to date. Besides a sizzling rivalry finally coming to fruition, here are some of the surprising things to look for in this weekend’s showdown.
Before UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and former champion Rashad Evans face off inside the Octagon this weekend at UFC 145, the two former teammates face off in the second part of Counterpunch. The long-awaited grudge match will give Evans a …
Before UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and former champion Rashad Evans face off inside the Octagon this weekend at UFC 145, the two former teammates face off in the second part of Counterpunch.
The long-awaited grudge match will give Evans a second chance at winning a title, something that he has been waiting more than two years for. When he defeated Quinton Jackson at UFC 114, the title shot was on the line, but he decided to sit out and wait for then-champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua to heal from injuries.
When Evans and Rua were scheduled to face each other at UFC 128, Evans got injured and was replaced by Jones. Jones would dominate Rua to become the youngest champion in UFC history and set up the match between himself and Evans.
After Jones suffered an injury that delayed the bout, Evans decided to fight anyway while waiting for Jones to heal up.
Evans has fought twice since the Jackson fight, defeating both Phil Davis and Tito Ortiz. His latest bout in January saw him win a dominant five-round decision against Davis.
Jones sealed off one of the most impressive years for any fighter when he took out former champions Jackson and Lyoto Machida after defeating Rua and Ryan Bader. He finished every one of them.
The pay-per-view event will be broadcast live from the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Ga.
Other bouts on the card include Rory MacDonald vs. Che Mills, Brendan Schaub vs. Ben Rothwell, Michael McDonald vs. Miguel Torres, Mark Hominick vs. Eddie Yagin and Mark Bocek vs. John Alessio.
This Saturday, the latest in an ever-longer line of UFC superfeuds gets its chance to reach a conclusion.By now, you’ve probably heard all there is to hear and read all there is to read when it comes to UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones ta…
This Saturday, the latest in an ever-longer line of UFC superfeuds gets its chance to reach a conclusion.
By now, you’ve probably heard all there is to hear and read all there is to read when it comes to UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones taking on former teammate and former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans. My prediction for this fight is actually quite simple, and yet it honestly startled me the first time I saw it written on my screen: I know with as much certainty as is possible that Jon Jones will win, but nevertheless I hope Rashad Evans pulls off the upset.
Let’s start simple. A while ago I completely botched a prediction and said Vladimir Matyushenko would beat Jon Jones. Of course, what ended up happening was that Jones utterly destroyed “The Janitor” in what had to have been one of (if not the!) most humbling losses of Matyushenko’s professional career.
Immediately following that fight, I made a promise to never again bet against Jon Jones.
I admit that, in hindsight, maybe I jumped onto the bandwagon too early and too eagerly. Back when people thought Jones was a talented up-and-comer amongst a field of talented up-and-comers, I was already more or less calling him “The Chosen One” and predicting that he would break “the curse” of UFC light heavyweight champions losing their belts in their first few fights since winning the gold.
Nevertheless, I have kept that promise, and it has served me well.
Which brings us back to the first part of the equation. With as much certainty as possible, I know Jon Jones will win. He’s going to do what he does best—he’ll find a hole in your game, no matter how small you may think it is or how small it actually really is, and he’ll exploit it; and then he’ll exploit it so well that he ends up finishing you in highlight-reel fashion.
That’s what he does. That’s what he’ll continue to do.
That’s what’s going to happen to Rashad Evans.
And yet…I hope Evans wins. Thanks to all the pre-fight hype leading up to this fight (in too many articles and videos to list) I just can’t shake the fact that the talk of Jones being “fake” may be truer than I ever wanted to believe.
Rashad Evans may not be the nicest person. To be frankly honest, a lot of the time he can come off as a self-assured, cocky jerk, but at least that’s the real Evans we’re looking at and listening to.
When it comes to Evans’ beef with Jones, it’s realer than real. I’ve heard the conviction in Evans’ voice when he talks of how he helped build Greg Jackson’s camp and how he helped train Jones, only to end up betrayed by both. Maybe that’s not the whole story—I’m almost certain that it’s not—but Evans believes it with such ferocity and tenacity and speaks with such brutal honesty that you at least have to respect him for being completely open about how he feels about the situation.
However, Jon Jones just feels like an enigma to me right now. And I only like it when a fighter’s style is an enigma, not his/her personality. Maybe it’s my own sense of insecurity and even a bit of jealousy, but more and more now, every single time I hear Jon Jones talk I keep feeling like it’s not the “real” Jon Jones talking.
I’m not saying Jon Jones will swerve us all and go from Hulk Hogan to Hollywood Hogan overnight, but I think he’s either hiding something or not saying all that he really wants to say.
Am I living in a fantasy world here? Maybe. I’ll admit it. I don’t feel ashamed about that, either. I’ve been wrong before, I’ve even been wrong about Jon Jones in particular before.
Nevertheless, and this is a point I raised in my recent Mark Hunt article, the heart wants what it wants. And the reason I love this sport is because anything can happen.
So for one fight, I’m stepping outside of the bandwagon. However, I still believe Jones is a phenomenal fighter. I still consider him one of the best fighters in the UFC right now. I’ll even go one step further and say I think Jones will more than likely be the greatest MMA fighter of all time once all is said and done.
I say all that so I can leave you with this: Jon Jones will more than likely defeat Rashad Evans, but I love a good underdog story.
This Saturday, the latest in an ever-longer line of UFC superfeuds gets its chance to reach a conclusion.