Not every teammate vs. teammate situation will end as bitter as Jones vs. Evans did, but it’s hard to ignore the signs surrounding these types of scenarios as the super camps continue to fill up with top talent in the same weight classes.

Take for instance, UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and 170-pound prodigy Rory MacDonald. Both train under head coach Firas Zahabi at the Tristar gym in Montreal, and both have been quite adamant in the past that they would never, ever face each other.

I’m not interested in fighting him. There are a lot of welterweights. I don’t think we have to do it now. In two years, who knows? Maybe I’ll go to middleweight, St-Pierre told reporters at UFC 145 earlier this year where he attended as one of MacDonald’s cornermen.

He’s a friend, like a brother for me. I just hope the best for him and I know one day he’ll be world champion.

MacDonald has been singing the same tune about never fighting GSP, and how out of respect for his team and coaches, he’d take the backseat for now while St-Pierre continues to drive as welterweight champion.

It’s like this, Georges has seniority at our gym, Tristar. Georges is a friend of mine. We’re training partners together. I don’t know about you, but you probably don’t like to beat up your best friend, cut him, watch him bleed, cry, lose money, all that stuff, it sucks, said MacDonald.

But there’s also a thing at our gym, I don’t want to get kicked out for one. I’m newer there, and Georges brought me in as a guy in his own weight division. I have to respect that you know? I have a long way to go in this career of mine, and in the UFC, and I want to wait till I am peaked to carry that title.

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