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Former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans believes that his ex-teammate Jon Jones' reign of terror could soon come to an end.
Jones, the former longtime 205-pound division champ, has never truly lost a fight in his pro-MMA career. The only blemish on his record was a disqualification loss against Matt Hamill in a fight he was dominating.
But in recent years, Jones' challengers appear to have caught up with him. His last three title defenses against Anthony Smith, Thiago Santos, and Dominick Reyes have all gone the distance and concluded with a close decision.
Evans believes that today's generation of fighters did well against 'Bones' due to their lack of fear for the top pound-for-pound UFC star. In an interview with Luke Thomas for Morning Kombat, Evans said:
"Due to the fact that his cloak of invincibility has been shattered, people aren't afraid of him anymore and they're really challenging him in places where they weren't before. They were really pushing the pace and all these different things that Jon just wasn't used to before from a challenger."
For the same reason, Rashad Evans is convinced that Jon Jones' planned move to heavyweight may be ill-advised. The former The Ultimate Fighter winner continued by saying:
"And now, he's going up to heavyweight. Before, (it was like): he's moving up to heavyweight and he has the advantage because he moves really well, he has fight I.Q. and he has all these intangibles."
"But he's giving away a lot of those intangibles, you know. His reach, he's giving away; he's giving up his size advantage; he's giving up his power advantage. He's giving up a lot of things that he didn't have to worry about at light heavyweight."
Watch Rashad Evans talk about Jon Jones below:
Jon Jones' rivalry with Rashad Evans
It's common for UFC training partners to turn into rivals due to the competitive and combative nature of the sport. That's exactly what happened to Jon Jones and Rashad Evans once they both pursued the UFC light heavyweight champion.
After rebounding from his loss to Lyoto Machida, 'Suga' was supposed to get an opportunity to recapture the title against then-light heavyweight champ Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua. But misfortune struck when Rashad Evans suffered an injury that forced him to withdraw from the title bout.
A 23-year-old Jon Jones was given the opportunity to step in for his injured teammate, and he was only too happy to oblige. 'Bones' dethroned 'Shogun' to become the youngest UFC champion in history.
Evans finally earned the right to challenge Jones for the UFC lightweight crown at UFC 145 in 2012. However, it wasn't the fairytale ending that Evans was expecting as 'Bones' dominated him for five rounds to retain the strap.
