(Video courtesy of YouTube/MMADigest)
Rashad Evans was in Toronto over the weekend to watch his friend and former training partner Georges St-Pierre’s UFC 129 bout against Jake Shields Saturday night at Rogers Centre.
The night before the event, Evans spoke to MMADigest at a pre-party at Muzik nightclub and touched on his recent break from Team Jackson as a result of Jon Jones becoming UFC light heavyweight champ.
For those of you who can’t watch the video at work, the meat and potatoes of the interview are transcribed below.
Here’s what “Suga” had to say about:
His new gym:
“I’m training at Imperial [Athletics]. I’ve got a few [training partners there]. Danilo Villefort, Yuri Villefort, JZ Cavalcante, Jorge Santiago, [Antonio] ‘Bigfoot’ [Silva], Rodney Brewer — just a little bit of everybody coming in there.
Whether or not it’s hard to put his trust in a new team when he still feels he was betrayed by Jones and Greg Jackson:
“I won’t put myself in the same situation again to train with somebody in the same weight class.”
The similarities between Jones and his replacement opponent Phil Davis:
“They’re both athletic, they’re both pretty good wrestlers, they both kinda have that ranginess to them. That’s about where [the similarities between Davis and Jones] ends. I’m gonna go in there and put on a good show and the result will be my hand raised. Phil Davis is a tough guy, so I’m gonna have to go in there and train hard and fight hard.”
His recent Twitter war with Jones:
“Just speaking the truth, man. Just speaking the truth. He made a comment about beating me in practice. If you beat me in practice, it was because it was designed for you to beat me in practice because I was helping you get ready for Ryan Bader. But it’s whatever.”
Whether or not he thinks calling “Bones” Milli Vanilli got to the UFC light heavyweight champ:
“I don’t know if it annoyed him or not. It don’t even matter because he is fake. When you’re fake, you’re fake.”
Whether or not one of them got the better of the other while training at Jackson’s MMA:
“No, not at all. When you have a training relationship with somebody, it’s not even about winning. It’s about getting each other better and helping each other out. Some days he may have an off day, some days I may have an off day, but more or less, it’s about trying to get the person who has a fight coming up the closest to peak at the right time. As his fights come closer, I would try to get him to be the best that he could be. So, it’s whatever.”








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commentsHowever, I think what's bothering Rashad is that Jones told him that he would never fight a teammate and what does Jones say after he wins the title? That he would fight anyone, including Rashad. I think that's why Rashad thinks Jones is a fake and that's where all the anger stems from. If Jones had not said anything about fighting teammates then there would probably be no issue here.
As I've said before, if it is for a title then you should agree to fight a friend because friends shouldn't hold each other back from their dreams. I don't have a problem with team mates avoiding fighting each other for just any old place holder fight, but if it's for the title, you have to take your shot/let them take theirs.
Rashad, you will have to train with people in your weight class at some point and there is a good chance that some of these people will become your friends. Accept that fact or seek alternative employment.
Maybe he meant guys in his division who he may have to fight for the title...
He does seem less than his usual charming self in this interview though. Like Charlie Brown after Lucy snatched the football away one more time.
Rashad's transformation to bitch is complete - he now talks like he's Lauren Conrad.
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