By now, most people are well aware that Jon Jones and Rashad Evans are former teammates, and they really don’t like each other. (For a comprehensive timeline of their history and feud, check out the one provided by the UFC.)
Their beef with each other runs deep, and it becomes apparent every time they interact, be it at press conferences or other media obligations, at nightclubs or on Twitter.
Take for example the UFC 145 pre-fight conference call last Friday. In response to an early question, the two headliners tried to show each other respect. Or at least, what they could envision what might be after they settle their score on Saturday night in their light-heavyweight title fight in Atlanta.
“We’re adults here and it’s not like I don’t know Rashad, so to be like men after the fight would be cool,” said Jones.
Added Evans: “Yeah (when) the fight’s over, the fight’s over. I don’t carry on any grudges. Do I think we’ll be best friends? No, but you know what, there’s definitely going to be some respect, so I’ll just leave it at that.”
Unfortunately, the pleasantries didn’t last very long. The fact is, they just don’t see eye-to-eye on too many things.
First example: Greg Jackson, who was Rashad Evans’ trainer before a young and full-of-potential Jones came along in 2009. Evans, who was against having Jones join the gym, had some harsh words to say about Jackson, who has been named the top coach at the World MMA Awards in the three years since he became Jones’ teacher.
“I told Greg at the time, I don’t think it’d be a good idea (to bring a new contender in my weight class) but Greg did what Greg wanted to do for Greg,” Evans said. “Greg talks about oh, you know for the team, the team did great, but the team consists of I, which is Greg Jackson, and that’s what the team consists of. It’s about Greg Jackson getting the Coach of the Year award.”
Jones was quick to defend his current coach, suggesting that Jackson has always been interested in expanding but saying, “a gym like Jackson’s is not a place for the selfish.”
“People are honoured to go and train with Greg Jackson and he has to cater to each person,” Jones said. “(But) he’s not going to be able to cater like he used to when he only had eight elite fighters. He has a whole stable of fighters now.”
They also had a different recollection of a famous “altercation” at a nightclub last May. Friday, Evans said he remembered Jones telling him how great he was. Jones said he recalls Evans telling him he would smash him. Evans told him to “stop lying.” Jones told him to “stop interrupting.”
And the conference call went downhill from there.
One thing they both agree on, they’d both love to stop talking and get to fight night.
That will be hard this week as they’ll have to talk at least one more time on Wednesday at the official pre-fight press conference. It has a different format than normal, only featuring the two of them, with Jon Anik moderating instead of Dana White hosting. Good luck, new guy.
This is of course the most high-profile fight between ex-teammates in quite some time. So a natural question is, who got the better of their time together in terms of what they learned about each other?
That’s hard to say. You might think it would be Jones, since he’s probably evolved more as a fighter than Evans since Jones was just a 22-year-old when they started together, while Evans was the older, much more established fighter.
What about who got the better in terms of what they learned from each other? Apparently, Jones didn’t get much from his elder.
“I really didn’t learn anything from him,” Jones told USA Today last week. “People have this idea in their head that he taught me how to fight … He learned from me more than I learned from him, I believe.”
Evans’ response: “I learned little tricks here and there for the most part but, it wasn’t like the best teacher of my life, it was just working together. And I trained with a lot of guys that I learned a lot from. I try to take away something from everybody I work with.”
Even more interesting is who got the better of the other in their actual training, period? Former UFC light-heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell, who is no stranger to fighting a guy he used to train with (Tito Ortiz), believes that could play a psychological role on Saturday.
“I’d love to know who really got the best of it when these guys trained together,” Liddell said. “You get a feeling for someone when you spar with them. That’s why I was so confident against Tito; I’d beat him up standing, wrestling and at (Brazilian jiu-jitsu) when we trained together years before our fights and I knew I was in his head because of that.
“Listening to Rashad, it seems from watching the Primetime show that he feels he’s in Jon’s head a little. He sounds very confident and I think that’s based on experiences in the gym. I’m glad he is confident, because that’s something you have to have against Jones. If you don’t go after Jon you are in for a bad night.”
Despite his early objections, Evans admitted he actually had some fond feelings of the early days training with the newcomer-now-champ.
“I would say that the best memory I have of Jon is that we used to have a lot of fun training together and competing against each other,” Evans said. “We would just have fun just doing stuff like ‘I bet I can touch your knee more times than you can touch my knee,’ or ‘let’s see how many takedowns you can get. I bet I can get more takedowns than you.'”
But he has a totally different outlook these days.
“Now I know how he really feels,” Evans added. “Jon always wanted to fight me. Jon never wants to be teammates and not to be like brothers. Jon came on the team to learn the way to beat me so he can fight me.”
It’s a shame for him that it’s ended up the way it has. But it will sure be fun for us onlookers on Saturday night.