UFC Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones may have faced mixed martial artists such as Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic, but when it comes to power, he believes there is only one winner. According to Jones, Rashad Evans delivered the hardest punch he’s ever received.
Jones and Evans are both UFC veterans and eventually met inside the Octagon at UFC 145 on April 21, 2012. Jones won the fight via unanimous decision, but Evans will always have his respect after previously throwing a punch that should have knocked him out.
“The hardest punch I ever received was from a guy named Suga Rashad Evans,” Jones explained. “He caught me with an overhand right, the same exact punch he hit Chuck Liddell with and dropped him, he caught me with that same punch.
“It wasn’t that he hit me so hard, it was the speed of the punch. It was almost like, you can tighten up or you can just let your arm be loose and let it swing. It’s kind of like an overhand slap, bro, he hit me so fast and I had no clue what it was.
“He just caught me right at the edge of my chin and I remember my feet were to a point where I couldn’t control my legs. Then I refocused and I was able to stand again, but bro that was by far the fastest I’ve ever been hit. And thank God I didn’t become unconscious because I probably should have been.”
Evans and Jones used to be close friends, and trained at Jackson Wink MMA. The teammates vowed to never fight each other, but in 2011, Evans found an interview of Jones where he admitted that he’d be open to an MMA bout.
This revelation hurt Evans, and he left the gym before agreeing to fight Jones at UFC 145. “It was hard at the time,” Evans said. “I remember how emotional it was for me when we fought. I remember when we first locked up and hit each other, I just felt like a wave of exhaustion.
-“We just both took a deep breath because there was so much emotion into that fight. But working through the fight and having it happen, it was a big healing process in the whole thing.”
The fighters finally settled their differences in 2016 when meeting backstage during an event, but although Jones may have a hardened exterior, it was him who instigated the peace. “I just went up to him and I was just like, ‘Hey man, I hope you and me are always cool. At the end of the day, Rashad, I’ve got mad love for you,’” Jones said.
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“I just remembered a lot of the conversations we had when he was in more of a mentor role and I just wanted him to know that I never forgot any of that stuff. Rashad will always be held in a very special place in my heart. He’s the man.”
“I said, ‘Are we good, man?’ And [Evans] said, ‘Of course we are good, Jon,’ I think we hugged it out and it was just a beautiful moment.”
