Tag: Rashad Evans

The Truth About Fighting Your Friends

Filed under: UFCIf UFC president Dana White has said it once, he’s said it a thousand times: MMA is not a team sport.

It’s a sport that’s all about individual success and failure. It’s about two men locked in a violent struggle for money and status, a…

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If UFC president Dana White has said it once, he’s said it a thousand times: MMA is not a team sport.

It’s a sport that’s all about individual success and failure. It’s about two men locked in a violent struggle for money and status, and there’s not enough of either to go around.

This, of course, is the inexorable logic of the fight promoter, who stands to profit handsomely if he can convince friends, teammates, and training partners to forego all other loyalties and duke it out in the cage. But then, the promoter doesn’t have to actually get in there and knock his best friend unconscious.

As UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub put it, “This isn’t basketball. It’s not like Magic [Johnson] and [Larry] Bird playing each other and being all buddy-buddy. Somebody’s getting fu**ed up.”

Greg Jackson’s Fellow Coach Thinks Hey Greg, You Were Fired by Rashad. Why Wouldn’t You Train Jon? WTF…

Fellow Greg Jackson trainer at Jackson’s Submission Fighting, Mike Winkeljohn gave an interview to MMAFighting.com saying essentially what we’re all thinking… Rashad Evans is being a f*cking baby. He’s too old and experienced to get his feelings hurt by the younger Jon Jones. He voluntarily walked away from Jackson’s gym. Now get off your ass, […]

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Fellow Greg Jackson trainer at Jackson’s Submission Fighting, Mike Winkeljohn gave an interview to MMAFighting.com saying essentially what we’re all thinking… Rashad Evans is being a f*cking baby. He’s too old and experienced to get his feelings hurt by the younger Jon Jones. He voluntarily walked away from Jackson’s gym. Now get off your ass, Greg and go train Jones to defend his title like any f*cking coach would do for their fighter. Okay, well maybe that’s just what I’m thinking. And maybe he didn’t put it quite in those words, but he did say this:

I wasn’t discouraged, and hey, I like the guy [Rashad Evans]. But Jon Jones has wanted to work with me and his stand-up has come a long way. He’s looking tremendous. But in my mind, if I was fired by Rashad, I don’t think I should take myself out of another job just because I used to work with the guy that fired me.

It looks like in this big mess of teammates feuding and firing longtime coaches and “brotherhood” members, that Winkeljohn is keeping a clear and rational head… which is what we’re used to seeing from Greg Jackson. Thus, Winkeljohn is confident, Jackson will come around to training Jones.

Greg, I think, will step out of it. That’s his philosophy, and bless his heart. But the sides were chosen a ways back. I feel bad saying that, but I don’t want to look like a bad guy and I don’t want [the Greg Jackson team] to look like a bad guy. Rashad lost to Machida, and he basically left. I know he left me, so that’s how I feel. Choosing sides? I don’t know if that’s the term for it, but he made that choice. I didn’t make that choice.

Hopefully a date for this fight is set soon enough and everyone can focus on getting into their chosen training camps to settle all this b*llshit, where it can properly be feuded out… in the Octagon.

Mike Winkeljohn: Rashad Evans Left Jackson’s MMA, Not Other Way Around

Filed under: UFC, FanHouse ExclusiveGreg Jackson may be committed to staying neutral when former teammates Jon Jones and Rashad Evans fight over the UFC light heavyweight belt, but striking coach Mike Winkeljohn is making no such promise.

A former ki…

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Greg Jackson may be committed to staying neutral when former teammates Jon Jones and Rashad Evans fight over the UFC light heavyweight belt, but striking coach Mike Winkeljohn is making no such promise.

A former kickboxing champion who has for the last four years taught striking out of Jackson’s Albuquerque, New Mexico-based gym, Winkeljohn said he doesn’t feel the need to stay out of the forthcoming title fight.

“I’m positive I’m going to be working with Jon Jones because, well, the kid didn’t do anything wrong,” Winkeljohn told MMA Fighting. “We have a good relationship.”

As for Evans? He might feel as though he’s been betrayed by the Jackson’s MMA team, but the way Winkeljohn sees it, Evans is expecting a loyalty that he hasn’t demonstrated himself.

MMA Top 10 Light Heavyweights: Any Stopping Jon Jones?

Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, Rankings, Light HeavyweightsThe Jon Jones Era, as you’ve surely heard, has begun: Jones is the new UFC light heavyweight champion, and everyone who follows MMA agrees that he’s going to be the champion for a long, long ti…

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The Jon Jones Era, as you’ve surely heard, has begun: Jones is the new UFC light heavyweight champion, and everyone who follows MMA agrees that he’s going to be the champion for a long, long time.

However, the light heavyweight division is so talented that it’s been nearly impossible for anyone to hold the belt for long: Chuck Liddell lost it to Rampage Jackson, who lost it to Forrest Griffin, who lost it to Rashad Evans, who lost it to Lyoto Machida, who lost it to Shogun Rua, who lost it to Jones. We’ve had seven different champions in the last four years, so why is everyone so sure that Jones is going to hold onto the belt for so long?

The biggest reason, I think, is Jones’ age. With the exception of Evans losing to Machida, every champion I mentioned above lost the belt to someone younger than him. But there aren’t any contenders on the horizon younger than the 23-year-old Jones. Not only is Jones already the best, but he’s going to keep getting better as the rest of the Top 10 light heavyweights in mixed martial arts get older.

So as I list the Top 10 light heavyweights below, I’ll talk about how I’d like their chances against Jones — even though I expect Jones to reign over all of them for a long time.

Greg Jackson Staying Out of It, but Disagrees With Jones-Evans Fight

Filed under: UFC, FanHouse ExclusiveThe way MMA trainer Greg Jackson sees it, it’s sadly ironic that his phone should be ringing off the hook a few days after adding a new UFC champion to his stable of fighters, and yet so few people are interested in …

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The way MMA trainer Greg Jackson sees it, it’s sadly ironic that his phone should be ringing off the hook a few days after adding a new UFC champion to his stable of fighters, and yet so few people are interested in talking about the fight.

Yes, Jon Jones dominated “Shogun” Rua to become light heavyweight champ, and yes, it would be nice if Jackson got a day or two to savor his fighter’s victory. But that’s not how it works this time. Not after Rashad Evans, a former UFC champion from the Jackson team, agreed to fight Jones just before declaring himself “done” with Jackson’s team altogether.

After inter-squad drama like that, all anyone wants to know is what exactly happened between Jackson and Evans to bring them to this point. The trouble is, Jackson isn’t entirely sure.

Keith Jardine Points to Jon Jones for Rift at Jackson’s

The process of mining anyone who’s been a training partner of Jon Jones and Rashad Evans for their opinion on the former teammates budding feud, has begun full swing. It’s a ‘hot button issue’ right now, and of course, we’re totally on board (until extremely odd Youtube videos surface from either dude, or they begin […]

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The process of mining anyone who’s been a training partner of Jon Jones and Rashad Evans for their opinion on the former teammates budding feud, has begun full swing. It’s a ‘hot button issue’ right now, and of course, we’re totally on board (until extremely odd Youtube videos surface from either dude, or they begin using a catchword like ‘winning’, which quickly saturates every medium known to man).

One of the pivotal players in the Jackson Team’s success has been Keith Jardine, who long before Jones became a member, was working his way up the UFC rankings alongside Evans. In fact, Jardine and Evans were two of the first notable competitors to annoy Dana White by saying they wouldn’t fight each other. Well, in an interview with ESPN, Jardine was quick to compliment Rashad for what he did for the Jackson Team, and pointed to that now ‘infamous’ interview Jones had with Ariel Helwani, for the sh-tstorm that is now unfolding.

“It all started from that interview that Jon did, talking about the possibility of fighting with Rashad [with Ariel Helwani on Versus],” Jardine said. “That’s just something that doesn’t need to be said. Of course they could have been made to fight, and they both knew it. But for Jon to go out and say that made Rashad look like a punk, and that’s kind of what happened to start it all. It was already sensitive, so it blew up after that.”

Jardine qualified that comment by saying “Jon’s just a kid,” and that the new champ probably “regretted” what he had said to Helwani afterwards. Perhaps…perhaps not (cue sinister music). Plenty more to come on this no doubt.