Battle of Former Teammates Goes the 5-Round Distance

ATLANTA — Jon Jones used his reach advantage to take a unanimous decision over former teammate Rashad Evans on Saturday night and retain his UFC world light heavyweight championship.

Jones (16-1), whose 84.5-inch reach is the longest in UFC history, was ahead 49-46, 49-46 and 50-45 on the judges’ cards after the five-round fight at Philips Arena.

In the final round, and only for a few seconds each time, did the fighters leave their feet and neither man was left bleeding.

Evans, 32, and Jones, 24, were once teammates training at Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA in Albuquerque.

Evans (22-2-1) became world light heavyweight champion on Dec. 27, 2008, but lost the title in his only previous defeat, to Lyoto Machida, on May 23, 2009.

BROWNE WINS: Heavyweight Travis Browne, who also trains at Jackson-Winkeljohn, defeated Ryan Griggs by first-round submission (arm-triangle choke) on the UFC 145 undercard.

Browne, a native of Hawaii, is 13-0-1 overall and 4-0-1 in UFC competition. Griggs, who was making his UFC debut, is 11-1 overall.
— This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal