Greg Jackson: All top-five 205ers could beat Jones
Jackson’s MMA co head trainer Mike Winkeljohn was recently quoted as saying Rashad Evans has the tools to beat Jon…
Jackson’s MMA co head trainer Mike Winkeljohn was recently quoted as saying Rashad Evans has the tools to beat Jon Jones. In an interview on Pro MMA Radio, Greg Jackson agreed, and went farther, saying that any of the top five lightheavyweights (Shogun Rua, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, Rampage Jackson, Thiago Silva) can beat Jones.
“Everybody on that list is dangerous. I think everybody has the tools to win. Rashad certainly does. If “Rampage” catches you with a big punch he’s got the tools. Everybody’s got the tools to win.”
Jackson also detailed what he considered to the high point of the high point of Jon Jones’ short MMA career.
“I think what impressed me most about Jones’ performance (vs Shogun) is him kind of getting a little bit tired in the first and second round and able to calm down, take a deep breath and turn it on a whole other level in that third round. When I looked over the fight, he did the game plan perfectly, he shut down everything we needed to shut down, but the ability to be able to be a little bit out of breath and be able to recover so dramatically really impressed me.”
“I’m never satisfied. You never want to walk away because to me this whole thing is a process. He gets the wins and all the accolades, the world title. I don’t have anything to do with that. For me it’s all about the process so as soon as he’s done fighting I just want to get back to that process again and improve him.”
Inevitably, the discussion turned to Rashad Evan’s public “divorce” from Jackson’s MMA.
“I had no idea and I was surprised. I didn’t agree with the statement and I was hoping to address it and deal with it in a way but it caught me by surprise. It snowballed out of control really quickly.”
“Rashad Evans is definitely one of the most talented and amazing fighters I’ve ever had the pleasure and honor to work with. With that situation, I’m staying out of it. It’s not that I don’t want to deal with that situation or anything, it’s just that my principle at this point with those two guys in particular is that I’m gonna stay out of their fight until it’s done and then hopefully everybody will shake hands and be friends again.”
“If Rashad Evans said to me ‘Greg I absolutely do not want Jon Jones on the team, no way,’ where in any of my 16 year history would I have been like ‘Oh yeah the heck with that I’m just gonna bring him on the team anyway?’ There’s nothing about me that says that. I’ve never done that before and I’ve never done that since.”
“We have already talked to the other coaches about it. We need to never have this happen again and never have one of our fighters feel like he’s been abandoned. I want to make sure that we learn from this situation and become stronger from it.”
