Jon Jones: Greg Jackson & I know eeeeverything about Rashad
UFC Lightheavyweight champion Jon Jones recently sat down with USA Today’s Sergio Non and covered a wide range of topics leading up…
UFC Lightheavyweight champion Jon Jones recently sat down with USA Today’s Sergio Non and covered a wide range of topics leading up to his UFC 145 showdown with ‘divorced’ former teammate Rashad Evans.
Sergio Non: You’ve often said that Rashad’s confidence is based on a single day in practice. How often did you get the better of him in training?
Jon Jones: I got the better of him a lot in training.
What Rashad has done, he took one day in 2010, just amplified it, making a whole base of people believing he’s a way superior grappler than me…
Rashad held me down at a practice. Because he used all his might to keep me to the ground, he wasn’t able to punch me or submit me. Holding me down does nothing to my cardio; does nothing to my face or nothing to my body. It’s not damaging whatsoever.
But when I say about all the times I could have really landed devastating things to him, but I just stopped right before it actually hit him — that was me being a good teammate. This time I’ll actually go through with those actions.
Yeah, 2010, I’ll admit, he was definitely a little bit better than me. He was definitely in his prime. Maybe a little bit stronger of a grappler in 2010.
But I truly believe in my heart that he’s slightly slowing down. I believe that I’m speeding up to the point where he’s going to possibly be finished in this fight.
SN: During the time that you trained with Rashad, what did you learn from him as a fighter?
JJ: Honestly, I learned nothing from Rashad. Rashad didn’t teach me anything…
We’ve honestly only really trained together maybe on 12 different occasions.
He actually came out in interviews and said he was so intrigued by my passion and just my enthusiasm about the sport. He learned from me more than I learned from him, I believe…
…He boxes and shoots a double-leg (takedown). That’s it. He doesn’t throw funky kicks or look for these interesting techniques that no one’s done before. He’s just very basic.
SN: Greg Jackson originally wanted to stay out of this fight, but he has decided to work with you, after all. How much of a difference does that make in your preparation?
JJ: …Originally, Greg was going to coach me, work with me, but not actually corner me. Now that Greg has decided to work with me and corner me … it’s going to be gigantic.
I don’t think Rashad actually realizes how much Greg knows about him … He doesn’t realize that he trained with Jackson-Winkeljohn for almost eight years, and these guys know everything about him.
We know what he does when he’s going to flinch. We know which way his head is going to lean when he flinches. We know everything about him. We know his favorite guard passes…
We know eeeeverything about him. Everything. Absolutely everything. He’s silly to just look over that and think that he knows me, when we know him.
SN: Rashad accuses you of presenting a false image to the world. How much do you change your image, depending on the particular audience at the moment?
JJ: I don’t change my image at all. I believe that I’m a man with a lot of character. A lot of character.
I can talk to you about politics. I can talk to you about family. I can talk to you about religion. I can talk to you about warrior spirit and martial arts. I can sit here and joke with you and be extremely charismatic.
I’m a person with a lot of personality, a lot of character…