People are already stating that Evans-Jackson have a heated rivalry when Evans already said that he likes Rampage and it is not a big deal to him. I expect Spike to play it up, hype it up and I guess fans will run with what they want to believe. Does Jackson have an issue with Evans like he had with Wanderlei Silva? I doubt it.

Rampage requested Evans:
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=8861&zoneid=2

with them having jackson the TUF 10 coach before machida fought rashad, the ufc was expecting rashad to win and be the other tuf 10 coach…they pulled the trigger too early…but they’re like “whatever, just put in rashad anyway”…i don’t think the ufc made the coaches decision on who speaks english but more than what they already had planned, which was to hype up rampage vs rashad. that whole ufc 92 post fight interview smack talk would have looked even more retardeder if rampage didn’t fight rashad.

http://ivansblog.com/

Even then, published reports at the time said that it still would not have happened if Zuffa had been able to convince Georges St. Pierre to move up his title defense against Thiago Alves to May 23.

The only reason they finally gave Machida the title shot when they did, rather than having him fight yet again before getting a title shot and likely against another tough opponent like Thiago Silva, was because all three of these things happened:

1. Quinton Jackson was hurt and couldn’t fight on May 23

2. Frank Mir was hurt and couldn’t fight on May 23

3. GSP was not willing to move his fight up to May 23

If any two of those things had happened, we’d be looking forward to Evans vs. Jackson in July, and Machida would have yet another tough fight before getting a title shot.

It’s only because all three of those things happened that Evans vs. Machida happened on May 23.

It’s kind of crazy to think that such an historic night would not have even happened if not for all of those things happening at the same time.

Dana White has believed in Machida since Day 1 so why deny a undefeated fighter the title? It’s not really difficult to market an undefeated karate fighter. He didn’t put a snag into any of their plan any more than Evans or Rampage upset over Liddell or Anderson Silva’s taking the belt away from Franklin. Fighter’s lose.

Shogun signed the contract to face Machida in September.

Jackson and Evans as coaches makes more sense and easier to market two english speaking fighters. Machida’s english is very limited . . . not as good as Big Nog’s command of the language.

i updated it again…cheese…