UFC President Dana White may have gotten the early Christmas present that he’s been asking for during the last few months. According to an ESPN report, Light Heavyweight contender Rashad Evans has left Greg Jackson’s MMA camp.
This development comes just a few days before his former teammate and good friend Jon Jones is set to face Mauricio “Shogun” Rua for his UFC lightweight championship at UFC 128. This title shot was supposed to go to Evans, who was injured and forced to bow out of the fight. At UFC 126 Jones was presented the opportunity to step in and take his friend’s place which he did.
Even before Evans had to withdraw from the bout, rumblings of White wanting to pit the friends against one another had surfaced. Both Jones and Evans had initially refused the idea of a confrontation due to how strong a bond these two fighters had developed while training together. White, who is adamant about MMA being an individual sport, willfully expressed his unhappiness with the two individuals potentially refusing to fight.
With Jones taking his place at UFC 128’s main event, the question came back up about the two Jackson trainees fighting each other. At one point in time, Evans had mentioned that he would go up in a weight class rather than compete against his then teammate. Continued questioning led to both fighters changing their tone about a potential matchup. The situation escalated when Greg Jackson stated that if Evans and Jones completed against one another, he would not coach either participant. This lead to rumors that Evans began to look for a new training organization.
According to the ESPN report, Evans also has no intentions of returning to the Greg Jackson camp.
“If I know there’s a chance I’m training with Jon and Greg’s training with Jon, I’m not gonna train with Greg any more, ever again,” Evans stated.
If Jones wins the biggest fight of his career on Saturday, it seems as it Evans is ready to step in as the next contender to the belt. It will be hard to say if Evans and Jones will keep their close relationship after the development of this situation. However, it goes to show just how important being on top is during your time as a mixed martial artist.
