Be a man Bones: Jon Jones pulled a 'snake move' and Rashad Evans doesn't like snake moves
The former UFC light heavyweight champion took a lot of heat for sitting on the sidelines and waiting for "Shogun" Rua's knee to heal up after earning a title shot at UFC 114. His much-criticized plan ironically backfired when he suffered knee injury of his own in training which forced him out of his title fight.
In stepped teammate Jon Jones and the rest, as they say, is history.
Now Evans is on the outs with his former training camp, Jackson's Submission Fighting, and he's scheduled to face his former training partner, Jones, sometime in September or October. It's something "Bones" swore in�previous interviews that he'd never do.
"Suga" discussed his current predicament with�Pro MMA Radio, making sure the MMA world knows his side of the story.
The sidelined former champ got things started by updating the status of his injured knee.
"The knee's doing good. It's about 80-percent right now, just trying to do a little bit of training. Just trying to work and get my movement good. I don't want to go too hard and too fast. Don't want to injure myself further."
After leaving Greg Jackson's camp, Rashad moved from Albuquerque to Florida and began training at newly christened Imperial Athletics with American Top Team castaways Jorge Santiago, the Villefort brothers and JZ Cavalcante, as well as Antonio Silva. Evans believes his upcoming title fight with Jon Jones will go down sometime this fall.
"I was ready to fight this summer but I think Jon needed a little more time. He had the two fights back to back so he deserves a little time to relax. I thought it was gonna be August but I'm pretty sure it'll end up being September or October."
There's likely nothing worse than watching an opportunity to reclaim a title slip through your fingers. Rashad experienced it first-hand and regaled his experience cage-side at UFC 128 in New Jersey.
"It was tough for me to sit there and watch it unfold. I knew I would have been able to beat Rua. I knew there was a chance he'd look bad coming off of surgery because of the last time he fought [Forrest Griffin"> coming off surgery. I was extremely happy for Jon. That kid, he fought crime at day and then beat a world champion at night. You can't be nothing but impressed by that despite how much you want to hate him."
There's been considerable drama with Team Jackson lately. After the public split with the famous training center, the former champion admitted that he had been against Jon Jones joining Jackson's camp in the first place.�
"[About Jon Jones joining"> I told Greg no and Greg went to Phil Nurse and talked to him about it and tried to convince Phil to convince me to let him on the team. Chris Luttrell is pretty much the guy that's Greg first guy. He's from way back in the day. He told Chris that he wants Jones because he's the wave of the future. Ask any of those guys and they'll corroborate my story. "
"I told him I didn't want [Jon Jones"> on the team and I didn't feel comfortable with him on the team. Greg was really hard-headed about it. Greg said we'd never fight and we were brothers. I trusted Greg with my life so I finally said 'to hell with it.'"
Evans wasn't the only fighter in Jackson's camp that didn't want Jones on the team.
"I never felt comfortable with the idea. I went through the situation with Keith [Jardine">. Keith didn't like it either because he was fighting up-and-coming guys and he was concerned he'd have to be in a situation where'd he's be forced to fight Jon to keep his job. It took Keith a really long time before he was comfortable enough to even train with him."
Rashad doesn't want to say "I told you so!" but he admitted that at least one trainer regrets their decision.
"I talked to Phil Nurse the other day and he told me that he feels like crap because, 'you told us this was gonna happen and we didn't listen.' I say this because I don't want people to feel sorry for me. It wasn't about him being on the team. What's done is done. The thing that upsets me about Jon is how he threw me under the bus because he said he'd fight me after all that time we said we wouldn't fight each other... It was a snake move and I don't like snake moves. Be a man."
Jon Jones presents himself as MMA's golden boy but Rashad believes he's human just like anyone else.
"Jon is always trying to say the right things and be perceived a certain way. Just keep it real. Now I know what time it is. Now I know that you would fight me. You must have been thinking of this for a long time. You must have been keeping score, taking notes during training for a long time."
"He gets beat in practice, he gets beat up just like anybody else, just like any other fighter. I'd never take away his talent but when it comes to acting with integrity. It pisses me off beyond belief."
When it's all said and done, Evans doesn't think he'll ever be able to reconcile with Greg Jackson or Jon Jones.
"I'll be respectful when I see them. I don't think I'll be friends. When you see people's true colors, what more do you need to see? I want real friends. I don't want friends who are only circumstantial. I want somebody who will be there for me when I need help. I don't need weak, fake friends."
"The last thing Greg [Jackson"> said to me was if you can't trust your friends, you can't trust anybody."
