If you can dodge a wrench, but can you dodge a fight. The game of dodgeball between UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones (Pictured) and Rashad Evans appears never ending. After agreeing to meet Evans at UFC 140 just 12 days after making his first successful title defense, Jones is claiming his former teammate is ducking their grudge match.
Evans had the pins removed from his surgically-repaired right hand on Wednesday, but his doctor won’t allow him to start training for another three weeks. With the clock ticking on their proposed December 10th showdown, Evans felt he wouldn’t have enough time to prepare for Jones.
“He’s tried to call me out on nine weeks notice,” Jones told MMAFighting. “Obviously, who wants to fight on nine weeks notice? … Rashad calls me out, predicting that I would say no, to make me look like I was ducking him again, and I say yes, and now he says, ‘Oh, I didn’t know he would say yes. I don’t want to fight him.’ He called Dana White, asked for 140, Dana White called me and said Rashad wants this fight. I gave him the fight he wanted and then he pulled out.
“Rashad, predicting that I would say no, he kind of kicked himself in the butt because I said yes, he turns around and says, ‘Oh, I didn’t expect Jon to say yes. I don’t want to fight him that soon.’ So in reality, he’s kind of the one who’s ducking the fight. I feel like he’s ducking the fight.”
Jones is fresh off the most rigorous training camp of his young career and treated himself to a $190,000 Bentley after submitting Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 135. Clearly, some R&R to break in his new ride was on his mind. However, with the opportunity to squash his beef with Evans staring him dead in his eyes he couldn’t help but accept the challenge.
“Like I said, Rashad is the biggest antagonist of my career,” Jones added. “He’s the biggest hater. He has so much envy. I don’t write him, he writes me. He harasses me pretty much. He is so envious and so jealous and it’s so obvious, he doesn’t even try to hide it. And after I beat him, he’s going to hate me even more.”
Oh, and regarding Evans’ long-term top contender status, Jones believes his mortal enemy should be forced to fight again before he sniffs another championship affair.
“Obviously I want to fight him, but how long are you going to get to wait and sit around?” Jones asked. “You go from not fighting for a whole year, and then you get a fight like Tito Oritz, which everybody knows where Tito is at in his career, and now he just gets to sit around and be the No. 1 contender again?
“It looks like he’s the one that’s sitting on his glory and riding his glory. There’s tons of guys out there. I think when he gets better, he should have to fight Phil Davis or Dan Henderson. How does he get the right to just sit around and say who he is going to fight and when he is going to fight and continue to be the No. 1 contender while everybody else fights all year long?”
Jones now defends his throne against Lyoto Machida at UFC 140 inside the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
Wed Feb 15, 2023 6:42 pm by 
Calendar
