A Terrible Threeway: Evans, Jackson and Smacktalk

Sometimes, the mouths get in the way of the fights.

There has been some recent news that UFC lightheavyweight champion Rashad Evans (13-0-1) is focussing a lot of his energy on former champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. Evans is (or, at least, should be) preparing for his first title defense against undefeated Lyoto Machida (14-0-0)

The stories largely surround an altercation the two had a UFC photoshoot they were doing together, where Jackson seemed incredibly angry with the champ, though it’s not clear why.

Jackson is coming off of a win over Evans’ teammate, Keith Jardine, who he defeated by Unanimous Decision back in March and has been open about his desire to win back his belt. There is a lot of speculation that this may be an attempt by Jackson to develop some pre-fight hype when he steps in to take his title.

There’s a big problem for Evans, though, he can’t engage in a pre-fight hype war with a fighter he’s not fighting yet. Rampage may be able to engage the hype machine, as a fighter who doesn’t have a bout coming up, but while Evans is looking to defend his belt, there’s no way for Rashad to acknowledge a peripheral threat, at least not while Machida is set to be his opponent at UFC 98.

Now, if Evans is truly not put off by what smack Jackson talks, then that’s great. It means that if he and Jackson ever do fight, he’ll be in exemplary mental condition. But if he is psyched out, he’s in a situation, because he can’t be angry and expect that anger to carry over into a fight with Machida. Apart from the fact that it won’t be directed at Machida, Machida’s not a fighter that Evans is going to want to step in with while fueled by anger. That’s a good way to get beat badly by an ellusive striker who prays on the technical shortcomings of his opponents.

Evans needs to make sure that he brushes off this smack talk as an attempt from Jackson to make sure that people are talking about that fight at some point in the future, to establish his name as a contender immediately following Machida, if for no other reason than people want to see the fighters walk the walk after talking the talk. Jackson is, whether he’s thought about this or not, making a power play at the contender spot when he’s not even stepping into the cage.

Evans isn’t the only one who has problems, though, because there’s something Jackson may not be considering either. I hesitate to speculate on the mentalities of fighters like Jackson, because he is such an enigma that it becomes difficult to tell what is artificial (food for the internet hype machine) and what is real. Still, whether we accept that Jackson’s words are intentional or not, the consequences are still real.

This gambit only works at getting Rampage closer to a title shot if Evans beats Machida. If Machida comes out on top (as I, personally, believe he will) then Rampage has built a lot of hype for a fight, and the UFC is going to make that fight happen. The problem is, it doesn’t serve to bring Jackson that much closer to a belt. It just takes Rampage into a main event fight that will make him four months older, a fight that will be held, probably, around the same time as Machida’s first defense. How can Rampage fight Machida for the title if he has to fight Evans?

The best outcome for Rampage is for Rashad to win, all the while building hype for a bout between the two. However this fight happens, though, it should be fun, especially during the press conferences.