Jones prepares to face former friend

Just another fight? No. Just another opponent? No.

Jon “Bones” Jones won’t try to kid you about that.

And yet, Jones said, he doesn’t need Rashad Evans’ likeness on a dartboard to prepare for what he acknowledges is the biggest fight of his MMA career.

	Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans, Che Mills vs. Rory McDonald, Ben Rothwell vs. Brendan Schaub, Travis Browne vs. Chad Griggs, several other fights: Philips Arena, Atlanta. TV: Pay-Per-View ($44.99)

So far.

“Every fight is the biggest next step in my life,” Jones said Tuesday after a training session at Albuquerque’s Jackson-Winkeljohn Mixed Martial Arts. “This fight, definitely, I feel a little more going into it, a little more will to win this one.

“But, for the most part, every fight is the biggest fight of my career.”

Without question, this one is big. It’s Jones vs. former teammate and former friend Rashad Evans – “Bones” vs. “Suga” – scheduled for April 21 in Atlanta with Jones’ UFC light heavyweight (205-pound) title at stake.

Even without the backdrop of a friendship turned ugly, based strictly on the two men’s records, talents and skills, this would be one of the most anticipated fights in MMA history. Throw in personal animus, and you have not just a great fight but great theater.

Here, as provided by the UFC, is the background.

In August 2009, Jones came to Albuquerque to train at Jackson-Winkeljohn. He and Evans, who had been a fixture there since 2005, became friends and training partners.

In February 2011, Evans suffered an injury that caused the postponement of a scheduled UFC title fight against champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua of Brazil.

The following day, Jones was offered the title shot against Rua. Evans said he would move up to heavyweight or down to middleweight to avoid facing Jones should his friend win the title.

But, in March 2011, some two weeks before his fight with Rua, Jones said he would be willing to fight Evans if that was UFC President Dana White’s wish.

The same day Jones won the title, Evans announced he was leaving Jackson-Winkeljohn. Since, “Suga” has had nothing sweet to say about Jones or gym founder Greg Jackson.

That’s OK, Jones said. Evans, after all, didn’t invent trash talk.

“It’s not affecting me at all,” he said. “Every fight that I’ve ever gone through, there was a lot of talk. It’s just part of what I do.”

Evans has expressed respect for Jones as an opponent, and the feeling is mutual.

“I respect (Evans) as a fighter, 100 percent,” he said. “As a person, I could care less about him.”

Neither of those statements, Jones said, makes Evans special in his eyes. He respects every fighter, he said, but cares nothing about an opponent once the fight starts.

“I’m generally a caring person,” he said. “But when it comes to my job, I don’t know these guys. I’ve never hung out with any of them. I look at them as kind of an object – an objective, really.”

Yet, he does know Evans. It took awhile, Jones admitted, to gain his usual perspective.

“When the fight was first announced, it was a little awkward,” he said. “We do know each other personally.

“But it’s been almost three months since the fight was announced, and I’ve definitely managed to get all my emotions out of the way.”

Jones, a tall (6-foot-4) junior-college wrestling national champion from upstate New York, has taken the MMA world by storm since entering the sport less than four years ago. His only loss in 16 fights came by disqualification for throwing illegal, downward blows with an elbow in a fight he had dominated.

His 15 victories include a successful title defense last December against Brazil’s Lyoto Machida, who in 2009 dealt Evans (17-1-1) his only defeat. When Jones defeated Rua for the title in March 2011, he became, at 23, the youngest champion in UFC history.

Evans is 32, and stands 5-11, but otherwise the two fighters’ backgrounds are strikingly alike. Evans, too, is a former juco wrestling national champion. He, too, hails from upstate New York.

Jones acknowledged the similarities, but said the biggest difference between the two former teammates will become obvious in the octagon April 21.

“Our wrestling credentials are very similar,” Jones said. “But I believe my striking, my overall versatility, will be the reason I come out on top.”
Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans, Che Mills vs. Rory McDonald, Ben Rothwell vs. Brendan Schaub, Travis Browne vs. Chad Griggs, several other fights: Philips Arena, Atlanta. TV: Pay-Per-View ($44.99)

April 21
— This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal