Rashad Evans: Shocking Comments May Lead to Big Showdown
By Sean Farrell
Rashad Evans has been maintaining headlines leading up to the main event of this weekend’s UFC 128 from which he had to withdraw from due to knee injury. His opponent Shogun is defending the title against Evans and friend and teammate Jon Jones and all the talk has been about them, as the two are friends and the tension between them is now getting thicker. Evans drew the line in the sand concerning a possible match up with his younger teammate Jon Jones somewhere down the line.
Jones recently stepped up to face UFC lightweight champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in Evans’ absence after his knee was injured in training. Though things between the two remained the same at first, Evans even vocally supported his younger teammate’s title shot, but then the situation dissolved and it became very clear that Evans and Jones would be in an awkward position of having to fight each other if “Bones” wins the title.
Evans rescinded his offer to change weight classes at the urging of his coach Trevor Wittman when Jones made a declaration in an interview stating that he would be willing to fight Evans if the UFC wanted the fight to happen.
Evans has admitted feeling disrespected by Jones’ choices and words and said he is very much warming up to the idea of fighting Jones and that he would be leaving Greg Jackson’s camp permanently were the bout to take place.
“I’m more open to fighting (Jon Jones) since everything went down. For my last camp when I got injured I went back to Albuquerque [to train with Greg Jackson] but I know I can go somewhere else to train. It may become more of a reality where I’m not using Greg at all. I’ve been playing around with the idea, thinking about where I’m gonna go and what I’m gonna do if this situation comes to a head. This situation is bigger than just me and Jon, it’s a team. Just like the 155’ers are gonna have to decide ‘Okay, you know what, now we gotta separate, we gotta go.’ I mean we got Melvin Guillard, Clay Guida, Donald Cerrone, and Joe Stevenson all in the same weight class. If we gotta fight, then we gotta get away from each other. I just have to sit down and decide, ‘What’s it gonna be?’ because there’s never gonna be no going back. There’s no makin’ it better or going back to the team after it’s done. If [Jones and I] agree to fight, if we say we’re gonna fight, it’s over. I would divorce myself from Jacksons.”
None of this matters if “Shogun” retains his belt by defeating Jones, but that will not be decided until this weekend at UFC 128, where the Jones and Rua will meet to battle for the title.