Urijah Faber may have come up short in every sense of the word against Renan Barao last weekend, but fortunately for him, he received some sound advice from undisputed middleweight champion Chael Sonnen in the aftermath of his loss that will undoubtedly alter the course of his career from this day forward. As you recall, Sonnen became the first man in MMA History to defeat Anderson Silvatwice at UFC 148, when he straight-up embarrassed the now-retired “pound-for-pound great” by KO’ing him with a second round spinning backfist so spectacular that the WWE had to steal it to make one of their fights more entertaining and less gay and stuff.
Urijah Faber may have come up short in every sense of the word against Renan Barao last weekend, but fortunately for him, he received some sound advice from undisputed middleweight champion Chael Sonnen in the aftermath of his loss that will undoubtedly alter the course of his career from this day forward. As you recall, Sonnen became the first man in MMA History to defeat Anderson Silvatwice at UFC 148, when he straight-up embarrassed the now-retired “pound-for-pound great” by KO’ing him with a second round spinning backfist so spectacular that the WWE had to steal it to make one of their fights more entertaining and less gay and stuff.
With an unblemished record of 32-0, the closest Sonnen has ever been to tasting defeat was the time he was served a severely undercooked steak by “The Spider’s” wife after he defeated Silva the first time (by fifth round powerbomb at UFC 117). We know some of you cynics would like to chime in about how Faber is now 0-5 in his last 5 title fights, and that Sonnen’s advice is probably falling on deaf ears, but we beg to differ. Because Chael Sonnen does not speak to losers. He molds winners out of them, or creates them when they get in his way.
Look, we’ll be the first to admit that this business about Rashad Evans calling Jon Jones a fake ass white boy via text message is pretty damn silly. The only reason we felt the photo was worth posting on this site is because Evans originally denied sending it. Do I think the “white boy” line should be characterized as “racist,” or as an insult to white people? No, not at all — although the tradition of one black fighter questioning a rival’s blackness is one of the oldest tricks in combat sports, and it’s slightly disappointing that Rashad stooped to that level.
Now that the photo has spread around the Internet, Evans was forced to admit its authenticity, which he did on the latest episode of MMA Weekly radio. Evans offered an apology to anybody who he might have offended, but also used the situation as an opportunity to question Jones’s maturity. The quotes (which start around the 1:23:00 mark of the show) are below:
(Rashad Evans: Friend to the white man.)
Look, we’ll be the first to admit that this business about Rashad Evans calling Jon Jones a fake ass white boy via text message is pretty damn silly. The only reason we felt the photo was worth posting on this site is because Evans originally denied sending it. Do I think the “white boy” line should be characterized as “racist,” or as an insult to white people? No, not at all — although the tradition of one black fighter questioning a rival’s blackness is one of the oldest tricks in combat sports, and it’s slightly disappointing that Rashad stooped to that level.
Now that the photo has spread around the Internet, Evans was forced to admit its authenticity, which he did on the latest episode of MMA Weekly radio. Evans offered an apology to anybody who he might have offended, but also used the situation as an opportunity to question Jones’s maturity. The quotes (which start around the 1:23:00 mark of the show) are below:
“Yeah I did say it to him, but he also said a lot of things to me that — I didn’t want to put his texts out there. We were arguing, I said a lot of things, he did, back and forth, but…I did call him a fake-ass white boy. I did. But I don’t think being a white boy is anything bad; if people took offense of being a white boy, then they must not think about being white. It’s an insult to him, because of course he’s not white, so you can see where the insult comes in. That’s the extent to the insult right there. It’s not anything against white people…he’s black, and I called him white. So therefore, as any normal black person, that would infuriate him, which it did. And it showed that it made him mad because he posted it on the Internet.
First of all, what kind of move is that, anyway? That’s like high school — not even high school, that’s like grade school. ‘Look what Rashad said to me, look everyone, look, can you believe he said this to me?’ Like, seriously dude…what am I gonna do, tell my mom because Jon Jones said that he would destroy me and said a bunch of mean things to me, I’m gonna call my mother up? How old — I mean, what’s the mindset here? If I offended anybody for calling Jon Jones a fake-ass white boy, I deeply do apologize, but I don’t have a problem with white people. Some of my best friends are white…it was an insult, and I called him white because, to be a black person and be called something that you’re not is very offensive.”
Like I said, I’m willing to give Rashad the benefit of the doubt here; nobody should be getting worked up over this. But it’s a little disingenuous for Evans to say that he was just trying to offend Jones by calling him something that he’s not. (As if calling him a “postal worker” or a “turtle” would have the same infuriating effect on Jones.) Because that’s bullshit, obviously. The reality is, “white boy” has certain connotations when lobbed from one African American to another. Rashad could have called Jon Jones anything in the world, and he went with “white boy.” Did he mean that Jones was weak? A punk? A geek? A snitch? Because he definitely meant something.
While making promotional appearances at the MMA Expo and MMA Live show in London, Ontario, UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon ‘Bones’ Jones took the time for an interview. [Ed. note: We’ll be posting the video later.] Speaking on a number of subjects, off-camera, the question of the authenticity of a recent racially-charged insult from Rashad Evans came up.
I took this photo of Jones’s smartphone (blacking out Evans’s number), which contradicts Rashad Evans’ earlier denial where he wrote, “Let me just state 4 the record I never made a racist statement 2 Jones. Jones creditability [sic] is gone with his fake surgery.”
Currently, Rashad Evans is expected to face Phil Davis at UFC 133; original opponent Jon Jones pulled out of the bout, citing a hand injury. Jones’s next opponent is undetermined.
UPDATE: Yes, this is real. I texted the number in the photo, asking for an interview with Rashad Evans, and Evans texted me back the info for his publicist, Jennifer Wenk. Evans is busy training, but Wenk mentioned that he would tell the entire story on ‘Inside MMA’ Friday evening. [Ed. note: Evans discussed his recent nightclub encounter with Jones, but we’re not sure if he talked about the text message. Anybody DVR the episode?] Jones also confirmed himself that the image was taken from his phone.
By Brian J. D’Souza
While making promotional appearances at the MMA Expo and MMA Live show in London, Ontario, UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon ‘Bones’ Jones took the time for an interview. [Ed. note: We’ll be posting the video later.] Speaking on a number of subjects, off-camera, the question of the authenticity of a recent racially-charged insult from Rashad Evans came up.
I took this photo of Jones’s smartphone (blacking out Evans’s number), which contradicts Rashad Evans’ earlier denial where he wrote, “Let me just state 4 the record I never made a racist statement 2 Jones. Jones creditability [sic] is gone with his fake surgery.”
Currently, Rashad Evans is expected to face Phil Davis at UFC 133; original opponent Jon Jones pulled out of the bout, citing a hand injury. Jones’s next opponent is undetermined.
UPDATE: Yes, this is real. I texted the number in the photo, asking for an interview with Rashad Evans, and Evans texted me back the info for his publicist, Jennifer Wenk. Evans is busy training, but Wenk mentioned that he would tell the entire story on ‘Inside MMA’ Friday evening. [Ed. note: Evans discussed his recent nightclub encounter with Jones, but we’re not sure if he talked about the text message. Anybody DVR the episode?] Jones also confirmed himself that the image was taken from his phone.
