Urijah Faber may have come up short in every sense of the word against Renan Barao last weekend, but fortunately for him, he received some sound advice from undisputed middleweight champion Chael Sonnen in the aftermath of his loss that will undoubtedly alter the course of his career from this day forward. As you recall, Sonnen became the first man in MMA History to defeat Anderson Silva twice at UFC 148, when he straight-up embarrassed the now-retired “pound-for-pound great” by KO’ing him with a second round spinning backfist so spectacular that the WWE had to steal it to make one of their fights more entertaining and less gay and stuff.

(Rashad Evans: Friend to the white man.)

Look, we’ll be the first to admit that this business about Rashad Evans calling Jon Jones a fake ass white boy via text message is pretty damn silly. The only reason we felt the photo was worth posting on this site is because Evans originally denied sending it. Do I think the “white boy” line should be characterized as “racist,” or as an insult to white people? No, not at all — although the tradition of one black fighter questioning a rival’s blackness is one of the oldest tricks in combat sports, and it’s slightly disappointing that Rashad stooped to that level.

Now that the photo has spread around the Internet, Evans was forced to admit its authenticity, which he did on the latest episode of MMA Weekly radio. Evans offered an apology to anybody who he might have offended, but also used the situation as an opportunity to question Jones’s maturity. The quotes (which start around the 1:23:00 mark of the show) are below:

By Brian J. D’Souza

While making promotional appearances at the MMA Expo and MMA Live show in London, Ontario, UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon ‘Bones’ Jones took the time for an interview. [Ed. note: We'll be posting the video later.] Speaking on a number of subjects, off-camera, the question of the authenticity of a recent racially-charged insult from Rashad Evans came up.

I took this photo of Jones’s smartphone (blacking out Evans’s number), which contradicts Rashad Evans’ earlier denial where he wrote, “Let me just state 4 the record I never made a racist statement 2 Jones. Jones creditability [sic] is gone with his fake surgery.”

Currently, Rashad Evans is expected to face Phil Davis at UFC 133; original opponent Jon Jones pulled out of the bout, citing a hand injury. Jones’s next opponent is undetermined.

UPDATE: Yes, this is real. I texted the number in the photo, asking for an interview with Rashad Evans, and Evans texted me back the info for his publicist, Jennifer Wenk. Evans is busy training, but Wenk mentioned that he would tell the entire story on ‘Inside MMA’ Friday evening. [Ed. note: Evans discussed his recent nightclub encounter with Jones, but we're not sure if he talked about the text message. Anybody DVR the episode?] Jones also confirmed himself that the image was taken from his phone.