When Jon Jones burst onto the MMA scene and began an incredible run – which saw him claim the UFC light heavyweight title and a string of victories over names such as Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, and Lyoto Machida – the U.S. MMA media could barely contain their erections.
Such was the outpouring of unbridled love towards Jones that his incredible ability didn’t provide enough ammunition for sportswriters to gush over; for example, the famous story of Jones tackling a mugger before his fight with Rua. It doesn’t matter that reports at the time said Jones merely ran after the mugger for a bit before his trainers yelled at him to stop and let them take over in case he hurt himself – it’s now become Jones ran down a mugger, tackled him, and held him down until the police arrived. You can bet in a few years time that the story will have evolved into Jones stopping an armed robbery, getting shot 10 times and still taking down the robber, before going on to beat Rua despite being near death. A true American hero!
Unless Jones announces a fondness for Osama Bin Laden, or support for President Obama’s healthcare plans, it’s difficult to imagine this star falling in the eyes of the media. However, if there’s one good thing to come out of this annoying little tosser’s rise it’s that it’s pissed Rashad Evans off so much.
Now, we know Rashad Evans is a moron with a ludicrously high opinion of himself, but this idiot really believes that Jon Jones should never have taken the offer of a title shot against Rua out of respect for him. Evans was due to face Rua at UFC 128, but after Evans had to withdraw through injury, Jones was offered the slot following his victory over Ryan Bader. Apparently there was some agreement between the two that they wouldn’t face each other in the octagon because they were teammates, friends, brothers… or whatever. The case appears to be that Jones would’ve preferred not to have to face Evans, but Evans believed that Jones should be his bitch, follow him around like a fan with an adoring sparkly-eyed gaze, and certainly in no way do anything in his career that jeopardises Evans’s own career path.
Whether you believe there was an agreement between the two or not, you have to admit that it’s pretty unlikely in a sport as macho and competitive as MMA that ANYBODY would agree to hold back their own career so that someone else could benefit – especially someone as cocky and vain as Jon Jones.
But anyway, on April 21st at UFC 145 they finally face each other (thus kind of proving that Evans side of the agreement was an attempt to keep Jones away from the title rather than not wanting to face his friend, but oh well). Evans claims that he knows Jones’s game inside and out thanks to years as training partners – but shouldn’t that apply to Jones too? It’s also difficult not think of how dominant Jones has been this past year, so to see him plough right through Evans wouldn’t be surprising at all. We’re going to go with a Jon Jones victory by TKO in the 3rd round.
If we can be serious for a minute please, it really is a great match-up between two superb fighters, and showcases, again, an area where MMA has the edge over boxing: the best fight the best. It’s a difficult fight to pick and there’s certainly no shame in either man losing to the other.
Ok, back to normal. They’re arrogant dickheads and we wish they could both lose.
By Peter Simpson
