The things that I think may give him problems are that these guys are bigger and they do hit harder. But fo the most part, this is the great Jon Jones.
Purchase the UFC merch here. Click to Predict here. If you like reading about sports, make sure you check out SportsIndiaShow. Log in to leave a comment. Swen Comm. All rights reserved. Sign in. Serra I, Jones will win the title and then either believe in his own hype or not take his opponent seriously and therefore lose decisively against a challenger.
The title shot that Jones is getting was supposed to go to Evans, who was painstakingly waiting for Shogun's knee to heal but then got injured himself. The title shot was then given to Jones, perhaps the hottest prospect in MMA history.
This has to be psychologically eating away at Evans. All of the fame, all of the attention and all of the praise that he could have had is instead going to a younger, seemingly better fighter who is perhaps undeserving in Evans' mind.
All of this would be sure to inspire Rashad Evans like he has never been inspired before. He will want to validate his decision to leave Jackson's camp and make Jackson feel bad that he backed Jones.
The implication of a fight between the two is perhaps the largest grudge match since Ortiz-Liddell 2. The UFC hype machine would make no "bones" sorry, but I had to about the fact that the two men used to train together and were once close friends.
First, it would garner a significant amount of interest in the already popular light heavyweight division. This would catapult the division into the next level of fame and perhaps create the first rivalry in MMA that was on the scale of the rivalries during boxing's golden age. Second, it would break the precedent of teammates not fighting one another set by Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch, much to Dana White's joy. Teammates not fighting one another is an issue in a sport that is becoming increasingly dominated by a select few elite camps that contain a majority of the best fighters.
It is also an issue that infuriates Dana White. Rashad's departure could signal an end to this problem because others in the future may mimic his actions and go to another camp. It would also give White leverage against Fitch and Koscheck since he could tell them to do what Rashad did, and they wouldn't have a valid reason to refute him.
Subscribe to our podcast State of Combat with Brian Campbell where we break down everything you need to know in the Octagon, including interviews with the biggest names on UFC Admittedly, most of the fight week talk regarding both men have had little to do with each other as Jones, 31, closes in on tying the UFC record for title wins while Evans, 39, has shuffled from one interview to the next looking back on a year pro career that ended last year.
Yet this week's reunion showcased the full-circle journey of the current and former UFC pound champion from brotherhood to enemies and back again. The story arc of their friendship proved to be one of UFC's greatest soap operas as Evans famously went from mentoring the younger Jones and vowing never to fight his one-time teammate to doing just that following a bitter public split that served as the promotional fuel for their grudge match.
The part of their tale, however, that very few people know about is how far Jones and Evans have come in the preceding years to repair that divide. I don't think it could go to a better person," Jones told CBS Sports on Thursday during a rare on-camera rendezvous between the two.
He's one of my original mentors and a guy I have looked up to for a very long time and I'm honored to do anything associated with Rashad. There was a time, of course, when neither man could mention the other's name without a sentiment of disgust. The story of how the cracks began to form in their once great kinship go back to when Evans, two years after losing his title, was expected to challenge then-champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at UFC A late knee injury pulled Evans from the card.
Jones, who was less than a month removed from beating Ryan Bader, accepted the chance to replace him on short notice after receiving Evans' blessing. Jones destroyed Rua to become the youngest UFC champion in history at 23, but it wasn't until Evans caught wind of an interview months later in which Jones shared he would be willing to fight his teammate that the fracture took place. One year later, after two attempts to make the fight fell through due to injuries, Jones and Evans faced off in Atlanta at UFC I remember when we first locked up and hit each other, I just felt like a wave of exhaustion.
We just both took a deep breath because there was so much emotion into that fight. Thanks for visiting MMANews. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Google News. Stephen Thompson vs. Belal Muhammad Booked For Dec. MMA News. Sign in.
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