Mixed Martial Arts Forum banner

Jon Jones Ducks Rashad Evans

3K views 32 replies 15 participants last post by  limba 
#1 ·
Here's an interesting take on the situation and some good points about Jones' injury and sense of timing.

As reported by Neil Davidson on twitter today, Jon Jones has pulled out of his fight with Rashad Evans at UFC 133. The reported reason is a torn ligament in his hand from his win over Mauricio Rua. There's some real questions regarding the timing after Jones has been building up his fight with Evans for the past month only to finally break the news that he's getting surgery on an injured hand.

Hand injuries can take up to 10 weeks to heal properly which would place the timing of a return to full sparring around mid-May which makes the announcement all the more interesting. A may return to full sparring would still allow for an 8 week camp for the fight with Rashad Evans, a normal camp length for most fighters. With Jones having spent the past month building up his fight with various claims of being the superior fighter at Jackson's MMA and having to take it easy on Rashad when sparring, it definitely seems like an odd time to pull out of a fight.

Replacing Jones is Phil Davis, a fighter who is quickly making a name for himself in the UFC with solid performances since making his debut at UFC 109. It appears that Zuffa has removed the training wheels and is ready to toss Davis into the upper echelon of the 205. A fight with Evans is essentially a "no-lose" situation for Davis, who is facing a fighter who is arguably one of the best Light Heavyweight fighters to ever fight. A win would propel Davis into the title picture, while a loss wouldn't set him back immensely. The opposite is the case for Evans, if he loses to Davis, his aspirations of facing Jones are all but sunk.

Jones released an explanation via his management company:

"(The torn tissue in my right hand in the area between my thumb and forefinger) is an injury that’s been recurring since I was a college wrestler, it doesn’t affect my punching or grappling, but I am taking the time and the proper measures to correct this now, so that it doesn’t happen again. I look forward to getting back to training and to my first title defense. As for Rashad, let’s see what happens with Phil Davis. I will be watching that fight with great interest."

Rashad Evans provided a pretty tame response:

"I’m looking forward to fighting Phil Davis August 6th at UFC 133, he’s a strong wrestler and a rising star in the light heavyweight division. I wish Jon Jones a speedy recovery, he has something that belongs to me and when he’s ready, I’ll be waiting."

Now, obviously, the first major sign is that both fighters share a publicist in former Zuffa employee Jen Wenk, who has obviously kept her clients' responses as professional as possible.

Do I believe he has hand injuries from wrestling college? Sure, it's completely possible. However, when a fighter has spent time burying a former teammate, it calls into question the real reason for pulling out of the fight. The first is the fact that Jones may be taking off time to get married, which would obviously take time away from the fighting mindset. But if he was planning on getting married, why bother building up the fight in such an aggressive manner? The second is that it could be a ploy to renegotiate a contract. This wouldn't be the first time that Zuffa has dealt with a star who attempts to renegotiate after a massive media push. The third is that Jones could be legitimately hurt and just found out about the timetable recently. I obviously don't believe this and think this is a ploy from Malki Kawa.

Whatever the case, this is the biggest chance of Phil Davis' career and could be a fight that sets the tone for Rashad's future. I've been a proponent of a drop to 185 to create new interesting matchups and a loss to Davis would definitely create that opportunity. Props to both men for this fight and shame on Jones for pulling out when he has ample time to recover.
"It doesn't affect my punching or grappling" .....hmmmm


edit: source
 
#4 ·
Well - the author of this article is a RETARD!

The author of the article commented this on his own article:

He's a ho pulling a ho move.

by Matthew Roth on Apr 25, 2011 9:17 PM EDT
I think this guy is someone who tries to create some mess (interest around his persona) by throwing some crap in the fan (ventilator).
The result of such an action is easy to envision.
 
#17 ·
I doubt Jones is ducking, if anything I dare say the UFC its self could have some dark input when it comes to such strange situations surrounding injuries in big fights, I thought this when Cain when down before he had to face JDS, think about it that was the last fight of title reliance in the division, so as far as the injury when it worked out great for the UFC, forced JDS to take on another No.1 contender fight while giving there golden ticket boy Brock a chance straight back into title action not to mention bringing this title relevance into TUF and the fact its giving the dried out division time to grow into title consideration because seriously if Cain and JDS had met the division was then a dead dry rerun. I don't know it just goes beyond making good of a bad situation with the injury, when you look at it it was exactly what needed to happen for life to continue in the HW division.

Maybe its the same now with the LHW division which I believed for a long time is drying up fast with old champs and contenders becoming dated, so maybe the UFC decided to blow a not so serious standard sports injury out of proportion and give new blood a way to enter the mix, plus Rash has not fought in a long time, must the same sense as Belfort when he faced Silva, maybe the UFC saw that and thought screw this lets make Rash have another contender match instead now its been so long.
 
#22 ·
So essentially he you're saying he isnt good enough to beat a fully composed Evans ?
BAD! :boo01:

Not what. I don't think rashad is even that good to be honest (i don't put his skill set up there with machida and shogun). I thought it might have just been mind games (like what hardy does), until I read the new article saying he was much more hurt than he led on.
GOOD! :thumb03:

I think he wrecks rashad with one good hand.
GREAT! :thumb01:
 
#23 ·
I dont think he is scared in really i mean he is pro fighter but i do believe he must feel Evans is his biggest threat or he obvs must have got the better of him training for him to feel the need for mind games / strategy.
 
#24 ·
*Scared* - no f*cking way! The guy is full of confidence. He just destroyed the champion - and everyone put in front of him in his last 6 fights.

As far as who owned who in training - this has been talked about soooooooooooo much. I won't go there. There's always 2 sides of a story in a situation like this.

Evans is saying he was better.
Jones said he held back and didn't submit, because he was respectful.

Heeelloo!! Of course they're gonna say stuff like this.

All i know is:

1. Jones would send Evans to a doctor with a broken orbital (or something else broken in his face)

2. I'm glad he's taking the injury seriously and going for the best treatment possible, wich in this case is surgey.

And i can help myself but noticing AGAIN - how a subject like this is twisted in every way possible, just to try an make Jones look bad.
It's a guaranteed recipe of getting noticed these days, if you start talking about Jon Jones.

Cain was in a similar situation.
Just became champion and then was forced to take time off to *fix* an injury.

Jose Aldo opted not to fight at the beginning of the year, because he wasn't at 100%.

Aldo said his WEC title-winning fight with Mike Brown left him with shoulder problems that persisted throughout 2010, and a bad back injury made things worse, even as he delivered two dominating performances over Urijah Faber and Manny Gamburyan.

"I felt that I had to take some time off to heal that and be back at 100 percent," Aldo said.
Every fighter needs to put his health first. Because this is how he makes a living. And a fighter doesn't have a very long career. If you don't take care of your body, he will let you down when you need *him* most.

I believe every small injury needs to be taken seriously these days, because it can lead to a bigger injury...and that one can also lead to another one...and so on.

Everything else is speculation.
 
#26 ·
I believe fighters should do their *talking* in the cage.
And Jones has proved he can *talk*! :) He has an excellent *vocabulary*.

Other than that, it's normal for each fighter to give interviews and stuff like that. And, of course, everyone is free to interpret in his own way, whatever a fighter says.

Freedom of speech - liberty of expression. Right?!

But, when i see some *trash journalist-blogger wannabee* post crap like that - i can't help myself. Sorry.

The original author claims he's a journalist.
Showing clear animosity towards a certain person?! Let's say it's OK, even though, *journalists* should write stories based on facts, not personl opinions. But, this *douche* goes one step beyond and sustains his case by calling the subject of his *biased article* a *HO*.

That's just wrong on so many levels. On all levels if i think about it more...

And i stick by my opinion i expressed in my previous post: Jones is a very HOT subject for anyone to talk about. It can propel anyone from *zero to hero* in an instant.

PS: that's about it. I hope you understand my point of view and why i'm writing these stories...
Let's say it's a principle of mine and i tend to stick to my principles, while trying to use rationality and common sense at the same time

.....and a bit of BIAS of course
:)
 
#27 ·
The problem is, by debating reasonably, you're actually lending credit to the journalist in question. Much better to briefly discredit them and not bring them up again.


Better just to take the apathetic approach on this kind of blatant journalistic trolling. Makes it go away faster. :thumbsup:




on a side note, the one thing I hate about duck, is there is so little breast meat when it's all said and done. Spend 90 minutes roasting a 6-7lb duck and it barely feeds me and a 120lb girl.
 
#28 ·
The problem is, by debating reasonably, you're actually lending credit to the journalist in question. Much better to briefly discredit them and not bring them up again.


Better just to take the apathetic approach on this kind of blatant journalistic trolling. Makes it go away faster. :thumbsup:
I know...it's like he feeds and grows bigger from debates like this.
Final conclusion: screw him!


[]on a side note, the one thing I hate about duck, is there is so little breast meat when it's all said and done. Spend 90 minutes roasting a 6-7lb duck and it barely feeds me and a 120lb girl.
I preffer chicken breast or turkey breast! Much more meat on it.

Or a big fish fillet! With garlic sauce. It's heavenly. :laugh:
 
#30 ·
agree 100% with limba, ridiculous ''article''...or editorial, whatever he wants to call it, to me it just seems like a troll post

right, JBJ ducked evans, rashad is the one who NEVER wanted to fight him and became all buddy buddy with him even though at first he didnt even want him in the gym

fact is most LHWs dont want to fight JBJ, not the other way around, most LHWs are scared of him, AS admits how scary he is, couture didnt want anything to do with him, griffin stayed away from him, i really doubt JBJ is afraid of any1

on a side note, khoveraki, its much easier to just sit back when your fav fighter is JDS, the man is too nice!

now to sit back being a JBJ fan? thats a very hard task, i dont know how limba manages it!
 
#33 ·
agree 100% with limba, ridiculous ''article''...or editorial, whatever he wants to call it, to me it just seems like a troll post

right, JBJ ducked evans, rashad is the one who NEVER wanted to fight him and became all buddy buddy with him even though at first he didnt even want him in the gym

fact is most LHWs dont want to fight JBJ, not the other way around, most LHWs are scared of him, AS admits how scary he is, couture didnt want anything to do with him, griffin stayed away from him, i really doubt JBJ is afraid of any1
Thank you good sir!

now to sit back being a JBJ fan? thats a very hard task, i dont know how limba manages it!
:laugh:
It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it!

The debates pre- Bader and pre- Shogun fights were rough, to say the least, but Jones just backed up everything he said...and more.

So, from that perspective alone, it was well worth the effort of me backing him up.

It's a fan's thing. :)
 
#31 ·
Hand injuries can take up to 10 weeks to heal properly which would place the timing of a return to full sparring around mid-May which makes the announcement all the more interesting. A may return to full sparring would still allow for an 8 week camp for the fight with Rashad Evans, a normal camp length for most fighters. With Jones having spent the past month building up his fight with various claims of being the superior fighter at Jackson's MMA and having to take it easy on Rashad when sparring, it definitely seems like an odd time to pull out of a fight.
Can someone explain this guy's math to me?

Jones is having the surgery in the first week of May, if there's up to a 10 week recovery time, somehow that "would place the timing of a return to full sparring around mid-May?" Because by my limited understanding of time, that would be in July, not May.

If he's under the impression that Jones didn't need surgery and it was 10 weeks from the Shogun fight, that would put the mark at May 28th, I think. But that doesn't even matter, since that impression is incorrect. Since the doctors said it wouldn't heal without surgery, but would only get worse.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top