(At least he’s done his research. Pic: ESPN)

Uh-oh, we bet somebody is going to get their Twitter in a bunch over this: Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal spoke with Five Knuckles over the weekend, breaking down the current Jon Jones-Rashad Evans beef with the kind of simple analogy any pimp could understand. Lawal said that in going back on his original oath never to fight a friend and training partner, Jones displayed the personality traits of a common street prostitute and now “Bones” – ahem – should be treated like one.

“I think it broadsided (Evans), because they both made an agreement (not to fight) and all of a sudden someone reneges,” Lawal said. “I would never fight Daniel (Cormier) definitely, and he would never fight me. Then all of a sudden if he went behind my back and said, ‘I’ll fight Mo on TV’ … that’s a ho move and a ho move deserves an ass whipping. I know none of my training partners that are my brothers would ever pull a ho move like that. If I say I ain’t going to fight my brother, I ain’t going to fight my brother.”

(The Authentic Sports Management Christmas party might be a bit awkward this year if all of the firm’s fighters attend.)

Jen Wenk, the ex-UFC director of public relations announced today that her new firm, StarPR™ Las Vegas, will be taking over the public relations duties for Authentic Sports Management, the agency representing several MMA fighters including UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and number one contender Rashad Evans.

“I am honored to have worked for the UFC and with owners and visionaries Lorenzo J. Fertitta and Dana White for the last six years,” Wenk said via press release. “I only hope to continue my good public relations work in representing this dynamic new management company and many of the organization’s top fighters, including the new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon “Bones” Jones, former UFC champion Rashad Evans and more. “

(“Your numbers are a little weak in the swing states, Jon. We’d like you to consider wearing this American flag pin.” Pic: ESPN)

Even as MMA hardcores continue to cream their collective jeans over the unbelievable awesomeness of new light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, early estimates indicate UFC 128 didn’t quite live up to expectations in the sales department. Stalwart fight journalist (and the kind of dude who keeps track of this stuff) Dave Meltzer reports his numbers show Saturday night’s pay-per-view notching between 415,000-470,000 buys, which puts it pretty much exactly on the nose of the UFC’s “average” buy rate of 445K. What’s that mean exactly? Well, to borrow a phrase from Scott Coker, it means UFC 128 didn’t really “move the needle” with casual fans.

Naturally, some of the people who get paid to have opinions about this kind of thing (dudes like us) will see this as a failure on the part of Jones himself. After all, the UFC did everything it could to market this PPV behind the 23-year-old phenom, including both a “Countdown” special and the heretofore unseen “In the Moment” documentary on SpikeTV. To this notion, we’d like to say: Not so fast. Even as a website that’s occasionally been quasi-critical of the sport’s new Christ figure, we think it’s pretty unfair to hang this particular PPV’s disappointing showing on Jones. Don’t forget that he didn’t become a full-on breakout superstar until AFTER he crushed Mauricio “Shogun” Rua to win the strap, you guys.

(“So, we can put you down for two boxes of Thin Mints, one box of Samoas and one box of Thank U Berry Much, then?” Pic: SB Nation)

Have a conversation with any of the top trainers in mixed martial arts – say, a Bob Cook, Trevor Wittman, or even Cesar Gracie – and it’s almost guaranteed that you will walk away struck by their incredible levelheadedness and otherworldly patience. Nowhere is that commitment to sanity and likability more evident than in Greg Jackson who – let’s face it – must be a goddamned saint to put up with everybody else in this sport’s crazy bullshit on day-to-day basis. Seriously, this dude seems far too reasonable to even be involved in MMA.

In fact, if there’s a real tragedy in Jon Jones’ and Rashad Evans’ lightning quick transition from bros to foes these last few weeks, it’s that Jackson is caught in the middle of it. The renowned trainer reiterated his resolve to stay neutral during an interview with MMA Fighting published on Wednesday, in the end essentially saying he feels both Jones and Evans are in the wrong here: Jones for capitulating to public pressure to fight Evans and then Evans for totally freaking the fuck out and decamping for Florida when he found out about it. Jackson’s entirely too sensible take on the situation is after the jump …

(Well sure, if you need advice on how to beat up an overhyped light-heavyweight, Antonio Silva’s definitely your man. Kidding! Only kidding! / Props: twitter.com/SUGARASHADEVANS via MiddleEasy)

Don’t know about y’all, but I already miss the days when the Rashad Evans/Jon Jones situation was merely awkward, and not openly hostile. The gloves finally came off yesterday when Evans gave an interview to BloodyElbow in which he told everyone what he really thinks about the new UFC light-heavyweight champion, and reveals that he never wanted to train with Jones in the first place. Some highlights…

On Jones’s change of heart before the Shogun fight: “I mean it’s one thing to say something in an interview but the least you could have picked up the phone and been like, ‘man I did an interview today and they kind of put me on the spot with a rough question and I answered it this way.’ At least give me the heads up so that way I know and not look at it if he’s Judas or something. You know who Judas is? That interview was some backstabbing s**t but now it’s like whatever because now I know the game he is playing. Then for Greg to sit back and say he doesn’t want to have anything to do with it….why not? You f**kin’ created the situation. Be his coach and be in his corner. That’s what you want so do it. I don’t care if he coaches against me. It doesn’t even matter.”

[Ed. note: Yeah, I think a guy with a New Testament scripture inked on his chest is pretty familiar with Judas. In all of the verbal-trash that will be slung around in the lead-up to this fight, this is probably the line that will stick with — and motivate — Jones the most.]

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MMAScrapsRadio)

What a difference a year makes.

Less than 365 days ago, newly-crowned UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones appeared on MMAScraps Radio and told  Pat Barry, who was then the co-host of the show, that there was no way, no how he would ever fight a teammate, especially not “his brother Rashad Evans.”

Jones’ change of heart has caused a rift in Albuquerque which caused Evans to move his camp from Team Jackson to Imperial Athletics in Boca Raton Florida, where he will train with displaced former members of American Top Team who have set up shop there including Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante, Jorge Santiago and the Villefort brothers.

In the interview, Jones backed Evans recent revelation that he had to agree to never fight any of his Jackson teammates as a condition of joining the revered fight team — a clause he later publicly reneged on prompting the former champ to accept the offer to face his heir apparent and former training partner. Interestingly, even when Barry tried at length to convince Jones that fighting a teammate wasn’t a big deal, “Bones” didn’t waver in his stance that it simply wouldn’t happen. He even went so far as to say that if pressed by the UFC to fight Evans or Keith Jardine, he would find a way out of the bout even if it meant faking an injury.

Check out the transcript of the interview after the jump.

(I guess that would make Anderson Silva the other joker, and Randy Couture the “Rules of Poker” instructional card that always gets lost.)

By Anton Gurevich

After just three years of MMA competition, Jon “Bones” Jones became the youngest champion in the UFC’s history. Jones defeated the PRIDE legend Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in an impressive fashion to become the new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, proving to everyone once again that “the hype is real.”

The Greg Jackson product is currently 7-1 in his Ultimate Fighting Championship campaign, defeating Andre Gusmao, Stephan Bonnar, Jake O’Brien, Brandon Vera, Vladimir Matyushenko and Ryan Bader on his way to the triumph against Shogun Rua at UFC 128. His only defeat came via DQ (“12-6 elbows”) against Matt Hamill at the TUF 10 Finale event on Dec. 5th, 2009.

And since the majority of Jacks, Queens and Kings of the UFC Light Heavyweight division are behind him, here’s the list of four aces who may be on their way to challenging “The Joker” Jon Jones for his belt…

Continue reading on Lowkick.com

(Vid: MMA Fighting)

For being one of MMA’s more tried-and-true institutions, there is always something a little awkward about those postfight confrontations in the cage between champion and challenger. Emotions are running high and the heat of the moment has a way of testing fighters’ grasp of the English language, spawning hilarious internet memes and sometimes even sparking enormous, embarrassing brawls. Still, we’re not sure our sport has ever seen an in-ring altercation as hard-to-watch as Jon Jones and Rashad Evans at UFC 128. Both dudes looked more like they were entering into a suicide pact than agreeing to face-off in a professional sporting contest as they mumbled halfhearted “trash” talk into Joe Rogan’s microphone and then sealed their impending friend-vs.-friend fight with the world’s least enthusiastic handshake.

We’re talking second-season-of-the-British-“Office” levels of discomfort here, like The Situation bombing at Donald Trump’s roast or Carl Lewis singing the anthem at that Bulls game. Everybody involved (including us) couldn’t wait for it to be over. Immediately afterward, when Evans cut the above interview with Ariel Helwani where he declares he’s “done” working with Greg Jackson’s camp and then Jackson himself had to think of five or six different ways to explain how badly this situation sucks for him, we realized: We’re just getting started here. In Jones vs. Rashad, we may be poised on the brink of the most uncomfortable feud in UFC history.

“In Mirko’s case, GTL means “Going to Lose”.

It may be too early to declare that a new era has begun, but last night proved that the old one is on life support. The Prudential Center is used to watching some pretty lopsided beatdowns, but even the hometown crowd seemed surprised at what they were watching. Unlike the Nets, fans actually expected Shogun to put up competitive effort.

Last night was business as usual for the newly crowned LHW champion, Jon Jones. Shogun, who landed only eleven strikes all night, was outclassed in literally every aspect of the fight. It’s no exaggeration to say that Jones made Shogun look like the 23 year old fighting a legend of Pride. For that matter, it’s barely an exaggeration to say that Jones made Shogun look like the untrained mugger he stopped in the park earlier that day. It’s tempting to prematurely declare the Jon Jones Era after last night. But let’s wait until he defends the belt first.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

Damn, New Yorkers are crazy for the UFC — that and free shit. I can’t imagine begging Dana and the fighters for their clothes, tickets or autographs. Maybe it’s just me.

The Cliffs Notes of this episode are after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MMAHeat)

MMA Heat’s Karyn Bryant caught up with Rashad Evans to get clarification on the former UFC light heavyweight champion’s recent comments that he is considering leaving Team Jackson due to the rift that was created by Jon Jones snaking his title shot away from him.

Evans pulled no punches and his response which left nothing up to interpretation.

(“He’s a jerk.” “No, he’s a jerk.”)

The Jon Jones-Rashad Evans situation is heating up as we get closer to Jones’ fight with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 128 Saturday night in New Jersey.

If you haven’t been following along at home, here’s the score:

• Jones hungrily accepted the UFC’s offer to fill in for Evans against Rua when his Team Jackson teammate injured his knee and had to postpone fighting for the title.

• Evans took umbrage with Jones hopping the line since he waited on the sidelines for over a year to get a crack at Rua while the UFC light heavyweight champ recovered from knee surgery, but he took the high road and decided to bite his tongue on the matter.

• Jones reneged on an earlier pact to never fight Evans and goes on record saying during an interview with Versus that he would have no problem facing “Suga.”

• When put on the spot about Jones quote about fighting him during MMA Live, Evans basically said “he ain’t no bitch” and that if that’s what “Bones” said, he would have to fight him.

• Jones tells reporters during a media conference call for UFC 128, “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. I have a lot of people outside of Rashad who I can draw energy and power from and they’ll all be with me.”

Which brings us to this week.

(Props: btillustration.blogspot.com)

Like a pack of vultures circling around a limping wildebeest, we’ve all been keeping a close eye lately on Jon Jones and Rashad Evans, and the circumstances that may or may not be driving a wedge through their formerly rock-solid friendship. During a conference call earlier today for UFC 128, Jones’s amiable personality hardened up for a moment when a reporter asked him — for the last time — about he and Evans potentially fighting each other in the future. Here’s what Bones had to say:

“With all due respect to you as a reporter — and I want to make it clear to all the other reporters — but I absolutely hate when people mention Rashad Evans, especially throughout this training camp. He’s a friend of mine, but I’m fighting Mauricio “Shogun”, one of the best fighters that’s been around for a long time, and for people to even be mentioning Rashad Evans right now, I think it’s ludicrous.

(Besides, who needs Jon Jones when you have Ice-T and Coco?)

You can probably go into any MMA camp in the world and find two guys who would never fight each other under any circumstances — and in most cases, it’s because they’re not being offered a title fight against each other in the UFC. But what happens when personal principles smash head-on into cold reality? This whole Jon Jones/Rashad Evans situation is giving us a revealing glimpse at just that.

When Jones was granted a light-heavyweight title shot to fill in for an injured Evans at UFC 128, Evans played the BFF card, saying he’d change weight divisions if he needed to, in order to avoid fighting his friend. Trevor Wittman was like, “dude, no.” And then, Jon Jones — the hungry, eager-to-please contender that he is — casually mentioned during a UFC on Versus 3 interview that he’d fight Evans if that’s absolutely what Dana White wanted. This, of course, puts Rashad in a rather weird spot.

(C’mon, Trevor Wittman will fight you right now for 50 cents and a half-pack of smokes. Pic: Sherdog)

Trevor Wittman appears to be one of the happiest guys in mixed martial arts. Seriously, if you’ve never noticed Wittman leaning over the top of the cage grinning like a deranged toddler during the introductions to any bout involving one of his fighters, check it out next time. That smile is all you need to see to know that the head coach at Colorado’s Grudge Training Center genuinely loves all facets of the fight game. It also makes us think that if a guy with as sunny a disposition as Wittman is willing to say publicly that one of his fighters (Rashad Evans) should sack up and fight another guy who is (sort of) one of his fighters (Jon Jones), that’s pretty significant.

Wittman said just that – well, without the “sack up” part – to Sherdog.com this week. Apparently unlike his New Mexico counterpart Greg Jackson, Wittman thinks it makes way more sense for Evans to set aside his supposed friendship with Jones and fight the young phenom (if Jones wrests the title away from Mauricio “Shogun” Rua later this month) instead of totally sidetracking his career by moving to middleweight or heavyweight.

(Well, this explains that full rack of “Machida Era” T-shirts at the Montreal Salvation Army. Pic: Knucklepit)

Once long trumpeted as MMA’s marquee weight division, the 205-pound class has had a bit of a rough go in recent years. Call it light heavyweight’s awkward teen phase. The consistency of Tito Ortiz’s early dominance and the glory days of the Chuck vs. Randy trilogy have faded into the uncertain mediocrity of the Rampage-Forrest-Rashad-Machida-Shogun Era. Frankly, what we have here is a division in desperate need of stability. If only someone would come along to restore the 205-pound class to its former awesomeness … someone enormous, with unrivaled athleticism and really, really long arms … someone possessing of unwavering spirituality and wicked Greco throws … someone who could capitalize on the misfortune of his training partners and vault directly into a title shot after just a handful of wins over middling opponents … Anyway, if that guy’s out there somewhere, we can’t possibly imagine who it might be.

Right now, light heavyweight rankings are anybody’s best guess. After the jump, find the current top fives, according to CP’s editorial staff along with our dubious justifications of our crappy opinions. Check out our lists and let us know how badly we screwed them up, would you please …

(“To: Rashad. Some glass trinkets to go with your jaw. Merry Xmas! From: Dana.” PicProps: Sherdog)

We could spend all day debating the wisdom of Rashad Evans sitting out the last nine months while waiting for his title shot against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. In retrospect, that probably wasn’t the greatest move. Evans – who ain’t no spring chicken at 31 years old — essentially squandered what otherwise might have been one of the most lucrative years of his MMA career trying to preserve a fight that now may never happen at all. In the process, he pissed off his notoriously erratic boss and (to hear the fighter himself tell it) put his entire future in the light heavyweight division at risk.

Even though the decision seemed justified at the time, deep down Evans might wish he could take that one back. At least publicly however, he’s holding the line. As the great poet Coolio once said, wishing is for suckers, and Rashad? Well, a few weeks after seeing his next chance at that 205-pound strap evaporate when he got his knee rolled up during a freak accident in the training room, he still says he wouldn’t change a thing …

(We just can’t stay mad at this guy. PicProps: MMA Space)
Not to distract you from your busy morning of eulogizing Fedor Emelianenko, but we feel compelled to remind everyone that Scott Coker isn’t the only MMA impresario who woke up Monday with a pounding headache. Remember that when we left the UFC last Friday, the butterfly effect from Rashad Evans’ knee injury was causing near-seismic shifts in the vaunted light heavyweight division? Yeah, we don’t think that got solved over the weekend.

Let’s see if we can get this goddamned soap opera straight: Evans tweaked his knee a couple weeks ago and instead of pushing his scheduled title bout with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua back a few months to give Rashad time to rehab, Dana White took a flamethrower to the entire 205-pound title picture. In one fell swoop he gave Evans’ title shot to Jon Jones, pulled Quinton “Rampage” Jackson out of a scheduled fight with Thiago Silva at UFC 130 and quashed entirely the idea of having Matt Hamill fight Phil Davis at UFC 129. Smooth move, guy. Now the matchup merry-go-round is whirling out of control and everybody is pissed.

(Props: MMA30tv)

This video has been making the rounds today mostly because of the part that begins at the 4:40 mark, in which Rashad Evans describes a physical encounter he had with Quinton Jackson recently at a Las Vegas nightclub. Basically, Rashad approached his TUF 10 coaching rival to congratulate him on his win over Lyoto Machida (and also bust his balls a bit). The conversation took a left turn, which led to Rampage slapping Rashad in the face. Rashad returned the slap, and then security stepped in. End of story.

But the way Rashad sets up the story is a little strange. He says: “I seen him at XS, right? And I go up to him and give him his props for his win, y’know, he beat Machida, I beat Machida, and I was like ‘good job,’ you know. And I said ‘but you know, you kind of used a little bit of my strategy in that fight.’ [Rampage said] ‘Whatchu talkin’ ’bout?’ And I said, ‘well I mean, you were taking him down a lot, and you said that I wrestled you a lot, so, you said I was kinda weak for doing that, but then you go and do the same thing.”

Rashad, if you’re reading this, maybe this will help jog your memory…

(Video courtesy of YouTube/wallenrichard)

Tatame is reporting that Jon Jones was not the UFC’s first choice as Mauricio "Shogun" Rua’s replacement opponent for UFC 128. According to the UFC light heavyweight champion, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson was offered the title shot in place Rashad Evans, who injured his knee training last week in Albuquerque, but the A-Team star declined the fight for undisclosed reasons.

“The UFC had another opponent in mind, but it didn’t work out. For some reason [Qinton Jackson] didn’t accept the title shot," Shogun explained. “I’ll have to change my training because [Jon Jones] is a lot different than Rashad. He’s much taller, which will present a great challenge. He’s been surprising everybody in the UFC — defeating everybody with ease, and it’ll be a tough fight for me."

"Smell it!"

Maybe Rampage is still waking up in cold sweats from the recurring nightmare of getting his head soccer-kicked into the fifth row by Shogun.

("I just want y’all to know that this shit is not awkward whatsoever.")

Rashad Evans‘s unexpected knee injury may be a career-altering nightmare scenario, but the former light-heavyweight champion is doing his best to put on a brave public face. After the bad news was dropped at UFC 126, Sugar posted the following on RashadEvans.tv:

"Hey my ppl! Last night most of u heard the news. If not here is the latest. I have 2 pull out of my Shogun fight because of injury. I severely sprained my MCL in practice. While in practice I got blindsided by another group of partners right into the side of my knee like football lineman style.. Since I’m hurt my teammate young phenom Bones Jones is gonna step in 4 me! I’m gonna recover & then see what happens next 4 me! Thank all u 4 the encouragement! I love my supports & my haters! Go get that belt brudda Jones!"

(Video courtesy YouTube/JacksonsMMAMedia)

When he’s not employing his other favorite alternative training method, Rashad Evans is Jedi mind tricks to manipulate matter, proving that there’s something to the rumor that Greg Jackson really is Yoda-like.

Rashad took time out from training for his upcoming UFC 128 showdown with UFC light heavyweight champ Mauricio "Shogun" Rua to work on improving his brain activity using the Star Wars "Force Trainer."

According to the manufacturer, "the toy uses EEG technology to transmit your alpha and beta brainwaves from a head set to wirelessly drive a motor which powers a fan that sends a sphere up a tower." Hopefully for Rashad’s sake it will help protect his brain from a head kick KO or maybe he will be able to do what Lyoto Machida did at UFC 104 and convince the judges that Shogun is not the fighter who they thought won the fight. 

("I trust this dude so much, I’d let him be my chauffeur if he needed a job. We could make it into a reality show and call it ‘Driving Mr. Dana.’")

Dana White helmed a Q&A session at Fort Hood last week ahead of the Fight for the Troops II show Saturday night and the UFC president dropped a handful of interesting tidbits during the hour-long forum.

Perhaps most noteworthy was White’s proclamation that former UFC light heavyweight kingpin Quinton "Rampage" Jackson will likely get the next crack at the winner of the UFC 128 championship bout between current champ Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Rashad Evans. White pointed to Jackson’s win over Lyoto Machida at UFC 123 — a fight many thought should have gone to "The Dragon" — as being the main factor in his title consideration. He also hinted that the winner of next month’s UFC 127 tilt between Ryan Bader and Jon Jones will likely get dibs on the winner of Jackson versus Evans or Rua.

"There are so many guys at 205. Rampage is probably next in line. Rampage is still in the mix. We’ve got Jon Jones and Ryan Bader fighting on the fifth [of February], which is going to be a great fight and catapults one of those guys to the top five.There’s so many great guys in the 205-pound division," White said. "The big problem has been ‘Shogun’s’ injury has been clogging up the division. Now he’s healthy and going to fight, and we’ll get everything rolling. [Shogun's] recovered now and back in training."

Surprisingly, White said that Machida, who just as easily could be sitting in Rampage’s place in line had the judges given him the split decision nod over Jackson, needs to win his upcoming UFC 129 bout in Toronto with Randy Couture, stopping short of saying that he could be on the chopping block if he loses.

"I didn’t think [Lyoto] was ever going to lose," White admitted. "Shogun beat him, and then he just lost to Rampage, too," he explained. "Now he’s fighting Randy Couture. It’s a must-win for him."

White also touched on several other topics, rumors and bout signings. Check the most pertinent ones out after the jump.

(Video courtesy YouTube/nathanmarquardt)

It looks like Rashad Evans has taken a page out of number one UFC lightweight contender Gray Maynard’s training manual to get ready for his upcoming light heavyweight  championship bout with Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.