Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans: An Initial Look at the UFC 145 Main Event

At long last, it's official.

The UFC announced on Monday that the highly-anticipated match between UFC Light Heavyweight champion Jon "Bones" Jones and former champion "Suga" Rashad Evans will take place at UFC 145 in Atlanta.

This fight is almost 12 months in the making; beginning in 2011 with Evans injuring his knee in training, allowing Jones to step in and defeat Mauricio "Shogun" Rua for the belt.

Having felt betrayed by his camp—Jackson's MMA—and his training partner Jones, Evans left the camp with the intention of preparing to fight the new Champion for the title. 

Fast forward to February 2012, both fighters have combined for 5 wins between them since March 2011. Now that the fight is booked, it's time to take an initial look at the matchup to see what each fighter brings to the table and what will be needed to walk out of the Octagon with the strap around his waist.

Rashad Evans is no stranger to big fights. He has fought in nine main events in his UFC career—8-1 overall, as well as winning The Ultimate Fighter season two.

On April 21st, he will be entering the toughest fight of his career. Not since his 2009 match against Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida at UFC 98 has Evans faced such a dangerous opponent, from an all-round skill perspective.

While his fight with Quinton "Rampage" Jackson was hyped as one of the biggest fights of his career, Rampage has been a "look for the knockout," one-trick pony for several years now.

As I stated in a previous article, prior to his split from Greg Jackson, I was never overly impressed with Evans.

Since then, under the instruction of Mike Van Arsdale, Evans has evolved into a more complete fighter. His wrestling has improved, as he showed against Phil Davis. His stand-up is more fluid, allowing him to dodge strikes to avoid succumbing to the longer reach of an opponent.

When he steps into the cage against Jones, his primary objective should be to make the Champion uncomfortable. If Rashad uses his prior experience and knowledge of some of Jones' tricks, he can avoid the intimidation factor that is starting to become a part of Jones' aura.

Although Evans has a decent game in the clinch, he will certainly lose that battle. He is better suited to weaving side-to-side and get pass Jones' 84.5 inch reach and start landing some shots right on the chin.

Evans needs to push the pace as much as possible and prevent Jones from getting settled into his own game plan. He could also use that pressure to set up the takedown. Although many have failed in this effort, Evans could be the man who may have the answer.

Jon Jones hasn't just lived up to expectations, he has beat them down to the mat. He is coming off a historic 2011 which saw him soundly defeat top prospect Ryan Bader, then-Champion "Shogun" Rua, and former Champions "Rampage" Jackson and Lyoto Machida. 

At 24 years old, he is still approaching his prime. The thought that he is going to get even better is unfathomable. Like Evans, Jones has also fought on some of the UFC’s biggest stages. He has headlined five events and won them all. 

One of the few criticisms of Jones was that his ability to take a punch was untested. He proved in his fight with Lyoto Machida that he could handle taking shots and still inflict his brand of punishment. 

However, Rashad Evans poses a different challenge. For the first time, Jones will be in the ring with someone who knows his style and has experienced it firsthand. The advantage that Jones will bring to the cage is his ability to constantly evolve his style. 

Against Rua, he blitzed him with a variety of kicks, elbows and great work from the clinch and on the ground. When he went up against Rampage, he fought from a distance, delivering strikes with pinpoint accuracy and avoiding Rampage’s power. 

In his most recent outing, he pressed the action and cut off the ring, thereby limiting Machida’s ability to move around and deliver counter-strikes while retreating.

Jon’s best bet is to use the experiences and the tools that he has picked up post-Rashad in order to fool Evans. Evans will likely look to push the action and try to land shots on what he may believe is a questionable chin of Jones. 

Jones must use his 9.5-inch reach advantage to beat up Evans with accurate striking and force him into retreat mode. From that point, he can begin to inflict damage from the clinch or even look to put Evans on his back. 

He cannot allow Evans to get comfortable thinking he can get inside and land punches at will.  Not that I believe he would, but Jones must not go into this fight with intimidation as one of his tools. Rampage knew Jones was dangerous, as did Machida. Evans will not be fazed.

It is a bit too early to start giving predictions on the fight. Given this particular matchup's history of falling apart, I would not want to jinx it either. What I will say is that this will be one of the more strategic fights of the year.  

For all of you chess aficionados out there, a common mechanism for enhancing your game is to play both sides of the board, basically play against yourself. The idea is that for as well as your opponent knows you, there’s always a way you can outsmart him and make him change his thinking. 

Both fighters know their opponent very well, but the key to this fight will be “Are you smarter than the other fighter?”

In 72 days, we will have our answer.

Follow Walt J. as he gives his no-holds-barred opinions on the NFL and other sports topics on his blog, "Live From AREA 49." You can also follow him on Twitter @area49sports.