Rashad considering ‘divorce’ from Greg Jackson, calls Jones cold blooded
Rashad Evans apeared yesterday on his “Suga and Pep” segment of Pro MMA Radio. Rashad new role on PMR every…
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Chris Palmquist
March 15, 2011 · 7 min read
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Rashad Evans apeared yesterday on his “Suga and Pep” segment of Pro MMA Radio. Rashad new role on PMR every week has been well received, thanks in part to his refreshing candor and honesty, which were on display. The quote immediately below is from towards the close of the show.
“I just have to sit down and decide on whats its going to be, because whatever it is going to be, there is no going back. There is no making it better. There is no going back to the team after it is done.”
“If we agree to fight, if we say we are going to fight, it’s over.”
“If theres a chance I am going to fight someone then I want to be able to keep an advantage somehow. If we are both drinking from the same well, learning the same knowledge, with the same camp, with the same partners, then how am I going to surprise them? He knows what I know.”
“I would need to divorce myself from the situation and just start over, and come with something new. I would divorce myself from the crew, from Jackson’s”
“Trevor would be separate because he is at Grudge. on rtrains in Albuquerque, so I just would divorce myself from albequerque and from training with Greg.”
– Jones signed up at Jackson’s under the proviso that he would NEVER fight any of the other Jackson’s fighters.
– Rashad talked with Jones after the interview he gave where Jones said that he would fight him. Rashad was very surprised. Jones had never expressed this. The interview was pretaped and Rashad never received a call or text alerting him to it. His reaction on ESPN was one of surprise when he said “I’m not a punk; if he says he’ll fight me, I’ll fight him.”
– They had a conversation afterward and Rashad left feeling like there was more that needed to be discussed…this bridge would be crossed when it needed to be.
– Rashad was asked about Jones’ frustrated comments on the media conference call where Jones first said he wouldn’t be taking Rashad into the cage with him though he was his friend and went on to say: “I have a lot of people outside of Rashad who I can draw energy and power from and they’ll all be with me.”
– “That does sound a little bit cold-blooded”, Rashad replied after hearing the above quote. “Jon’s a young guy and when you’re a young guy sometimes you talk a little too fast for your brain to keep up…I don’t think it’s acceptable at all. I don’t think it’s something I’d say.”
– Next, this Jones quote was brought up by Pepe: “I absolutely hate when people mention Rashad Evans, especially throughout this training camp….for people to even be mentioning Rashad Evans right now…I think it’s ludicrous. Rashad is not in my mind, he’s not in my being, he has absolutely zero to do with my heart and who I am right now. This guy has nothing to do with Shogun and from here on out, I don’t think I’ll answer a question about Rashad.”
Rashad replied with “it sounds like he wants to fight, huh? Those sound like fighting words”. He went on to say, “Ya know, I don’t know how to judge the kid. It’s kinda messed up, to be honest. Ya know, I can’t control what anyone else says and it sounds to me like he’s a little bit insecure about the whole thing. Sometimes when you open your mouth you show what you’re afraid of more than anything. I don’t know why he has such an adverse response like that to me. I’ve never challenged him or made him feel like he should do that sort of thing. It sounds to me — if I was out of the situation — that he was feeling insecure about me [not Shogun responding to Pepe’s point].”
– Rashad goes on to point out fairly eloquently about how you have to answer reporters’ questions to the best of your ability. You can’t just expect to not talk about a situation where you stepped in for a friend and training partner in a title fight who was injured. He does say that that made Jon “sound like a baby”.
– When asked to rank his feelings toward fighting Jones on a scale of 1-10, Rashad didn’t say how likely he would be to fight Jon but said his mind is very open to it because of how things have gone. He’s finding out that his teammate may fight him over TV and that this is not how things are done. Out of respect to the coach and Jon, he’ll talk to them before he pulls the trigger.
– Rashad says that he’s been working a lot with Trevor Wittman over the last few camps. Trevor is his guy and he’s been spending time with him including the last two camps. By the way Rashad is talking, it seems like he doesn’t have a problem fighting his training partners; that he agrees with Trevor. It sounds like Rashad had enough respect for Greg Jackson’s agreement to not fight his training partners that he went along with Jackson’s law. Now that the school has grown and Jones has said he would fight Evans and Jackson has not intervened and restated his mandate that Jones never fight any training partners, things may be different.
CagePages.com is reporting – as rumor – that Rashad has left Jackson’s MMA
A rumor first started circulating a few days ago that former UFC light-heavyweight champion Rashad Evans had left Greg Jackson’s team. The news was easily passed off as it made it’s way to the popular mixed martial arts forum, The Underground.
I’ve received confirmation from one source, who appears to be valid, that Rashad did in fact leave Jackson’s MMA.
If Evans did indeed leave Team Jackson, it will be interesting to see the effect it has on the team and why he made the decision. I’m curious to know if the injury conspiracy theory or Jon Jones receiving Evans’ title shot has anything to do with the move. It will also be important to see if any fighters follow Evans, who was one of the camps leaders, out the door.
In an interview with Ariel Helwani, Evan’s manager, Glenn Robinson of Authentic Sports Management, clarified some of the remarks
“[Evans] hasn’t decided what he is going to do with training,” Robinson said.
Robinson added that Evans is waiting to see what happens on Saturday night when his training partner and friend Jon Jones fights Mauricio “Shogun” Rua for the UFC light heavyweight title. Should Jones win, UFC president Dana White has said that he would like to see Evans challenge Jones for the belt, and both fighters have begun to warm up to the idea of facing each other in the future.
“If they decided to fight, obviously they both can’t train at the same place,” Robinson said.
The manager also added that Evans wasn’t sure if he would just train at Grudge Training Center in Colorado for the potential Jones fight or if he would set up shop at a new camp.
