Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans: 6 Reasons Why the Result Wouldn't Be Surprising
With the departure of Rashad Evans from Greg Jackson's famous MMA stable almost imminent, a potential fight between Evans and Jon "Bones" Jones, the top lock for this Saturday's light heavyweight title fight at UFC 128, has become the talk of the town in the MMA community.
What are the implications of the fight, and who would come out on top in the feud between two former friends? Click the "next" button to find out!
Experience: Rashad Slightly Edges Jones
1 of 8It may perhaps be common for casual MMA fans to proclaim young prospects like Jones "inexperienced." In fact, Evans has only four more fights than Jones—17 to Jones' 13.
However, Evans is more experienced against high competition than Jones is, having been a champion and having fought four former champions in Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin, Lyoto Machida and Rampage Jackson.
This adds an additional dimension to Rashad's experience advantage. He has fought on the big stage before, and the fabled "octagon jitters" will be of no concern to him; he has been in the main event in his last six fights.
Jones, on the other hand, has only Ryan Bader as a feather in his cap and, if one includes Saturday's man event, has only been a headliner three times, and two of those were minor events on Versus.
Therefore, the edge in experience has to go to Rashad Evans.
Conditioning: Even
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It is a famous saying that conditioning is the best technique of all. So which of these two fighters has the better conditioning?
The only reason why Evans can be given the nod here is because we have seen him go the distance many more times than Jones has. Evans has gone the distance nine times in his career, while Jones has only done so twice.
While this can be attributed to the difference in skill between Jones and his opponents, it can still be said that we have not seen the conditioning of "Bones" be truly tested yet.
However, Evans, if he is given a shot at the hypothetically victorious Jones, would be coming off a massive respite in fighting (his last fight was in May 2010)—and an injury. It is totally possible that his cardio may not be what it should.
When all things are considered, it is impossible to give the edge in conditioning to either man.
Chin: Jones, Although We Have Never Seen It Tested
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Rashad Evans is unfortunate enough to have a picture of him unconscious, bloody and quite frankly looking like a zombie circulating all over the Internet thanks to Lyoto Machida. Out of respect to Evans, it won't be placed in this slideshow (although any MMA fan worth their salt knows what I'm talking about).
We have also seen Evans get rocked in fights against Thiago Silva and Rampage Jackson.
Jon Jones is a fighter who has long enough reach and strong enough strikes to put Evans down and keep him there.
Nevertheless, Jones' chin has not been tested, but this will likely change in his fight against Shogun. Even if it does turn out that Jones does have a suspect chin, it is doubtful that Evans is the one to put Jones' lights out.
This is due to the reach difference and the fact that the only people that Evans cleanly knocked out were Forrest Griffin, Chuck Liddell, Sean Salmon and Jason Lambert—two fighters with less than stellar chins and two journeymen who aren't even with the UFC.
Training Camp: Jon Jones
4 of 8This one is obvious. Greg Jackson's MMA training camp is considered one of the top MMA gyms in the world, if not the top one itself.
It is rumored that Evans will move his camp to Denver's Grudge Training Center—where fellow UFC fighter Shane Carwin trains—but, no offense to them, it is not on the same caliber as Jackson's Albuquerque stronghold despite being an affiliate gym.
Simply put, Jones would have access to better training partners and better coaches. Thus, he will be better prepared and have a better game plan.
Overall Skill Set: Jon Jones
5 of 8What is meant by "overall skill set" is which fighter has the best skills to defeat the other. The answer is Jon Jones by far.
Jones has battered every opponent that has come from a wrestling background; Rashad Evans comes from a wrestling background.
Matt Hamill, Vladimir Matyushenko, Brandon Vera (primarily fights as a striker but was an accomplished Greco-Roman wrestler) and Ryan Bader were all helpless against Jones' takedowns and could not use their wrestling to return to their feet for a prolonged amount of time once smothered by Jones.
It is likely that the same thing would happen to Rashad Evans.
In terms of striking, the questionable chin of Evans has been covered in detail and will not be discussed again; suffice it to say that Jones has long enough arms to hit Rashad before he can even contemplate a takedown.
Evans' recent (T)KO victories have come over opponents that did not seek to wrestle and were trying to strike with him. This would probably not be the case when he fights Jones, who has taken down most of his opponents.
Even worse for Evans, Jones has an incredible top game and ground and pound via elbows. Evans has nothing off his back to speak of.
Evans would, to use Chael Sonnen's comparison, "be on his back like a prostitute with a mortgage."
Motivation: Rashad Evans
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It is possible that, as we saw with GSP vs. 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.
On the other hand, Evans would certainly be fired up to fight Jones.
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.
Rashad Evans will make himself a very dangerous man if he has to fight Jon Jones.
Implications of the Fight
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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.
This could be a massive payday for Dana White and Zuffa.
There would be other benefits to this fight as well.
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.
The only negative consequence is not of the fight itself but rather of the skill of Jon Jones. If Jones smashes Evans, he can likely beat anyone else in the division. This would create yet another division where the champion is leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the fighters—even the No. 1 contender in most cases.
Still, the fight would do more good than bad for the UFC and for the sport of MMA.
And Your Winner Is...
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Jon Jones by far.
Despite the advantage in experience and motivation, the skill difference would be too much for Evans to overcome.
We have seen Jones dismantle and ground and pound solid, accomplished wrestlers, and this fight would be no different than those.
The last time Evans fought someone who was trying to take him down was in 2007 against Tito Ortiz, which ended in a draw because Ortiz lost a point for grabbing the cage.
All of his victories since then have been over fighters who prefer to strike.
Even if Jones decides to strike, he would still have enough reach and power to hurt Evans and then jump on him and deliver a TKO via elbows or maybe even submit him as he did with Ryan Bader.
The fight would end on the ground late in the first or early in the second.
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