Fan Fight

An artist's rendition of Jon Jones cheek-kiss on Joe Rogan, no doubt practicing for Rashad.

Evans also spoke about moving away from Team Jackson (a move that has already been confirmed) and possibly forming his own team with a few trainers that would stick with him. Whether these were decisions made in the heat of the moment or an actual long-term plan being implemented has yet to be seen.

Although it does seem that Evans may be taking Jones's decision a bit personally, it's been pretty obvious to the outside observer that this has been coming for awhile. If only because of the sheer amount of peer pressure on the two fighters and the threat of Dana twittering nasty things about them. In fact, I would have been very surprised if they hadn't ended up fighting each other.

That said disloyalty to a team-mate is not easy to shrug off, and while Evans may be acting out after being "disrespected" its understandable. I'm not saying some disrespect hasn't been shown on both sides but overall I feel like the entire mess has been arranged by the UFC in order to hype up a Jones vs. Evans fight and that both fighters have every right to feel frustrated by it. Rashad is just being more open about it.

Rage brother, Rage Against the Machine!

But all of this, its only the icing on the cake for any die hard fan. What's really interesting is how Jon Jones and Rashad Evans match up together on paper.

With takedowns they're about even since Jones has excellent takedown defense and Evans has excellent takedowns and wrestling. But I would have to give a slight nod towards Evans here since he has trained and sparred with Jones before and is better acquainted with that defense then most. I can totally see Evans being the first one to take Jones down in a UFC match.

With striking I have to give a huge advantage to Jones. Evans is very well rounded with his striking and his experience and power always makes him a threat standing up, but Jones has a huge reach advantage and an unpredictable and inventive style. And if that isn't enough Evans will be coming off of a knee injury which makes the chances of him throwing a highlight reel high-kick a big ol' zero.

With submissions I give the advantage to Evans, at least on paper. Jones is good, but he is no black belt in BJJ. While he may be able to land a submission on Evans, it is far more likely that Evans will land a submission on him. And Evans will be more than capable of defending from Jones's submissions, whereas the reverse may not be true.

Health and conditioning go to Jones who will be the younger fighter, and whose conditioning will likely be much stronger since Evans will still be recovering from his knee injury. Rashad does not want this to go to a decision since I think it unlikely that he will be able to maintain a decent performance for the full five rounds.

My prediction is that Evans will try and take this fight to the ground and force Jones to tapout via submission, if it goes past the third round or if it stays standing up I don't think Evans will survive but for those first few rounds "Suga" Rashad Evans has a very good chance of winning. I say Evans takes the win by tapout in the second round.

Yeah, he may have already started the smack-throwing contest (albeit one you have to go to bible college for to really appreciate) and his skin isn't as thick as it should be. But the man is a damned good fighter with plenty of heart and he will undoubtedly become an inspiration and a living legend for the next generation of MMA fighters. So here's lookin' at you Rashad.



We'll always have Par--Err, Vegas.