UFC’s Rashad Evans: ‘I can’t fight my teammate’

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The way the Ultimate Fighting Championship schedule is shaping up, light-heavyweight champion Rashad Evans will make his first title defense at UFC 100 in July in Las Vegas.

If his training-camp teammate from Albuquerque, N.M., Keith Jardine, can defeat Irvine’s Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson Saturday night at the UFC event in Columbus, Ohio, it would make sense for Jardine to get a much-deserved title shot.

But Evans says, ‘I can’t fight my teammate. The whole situation would be so complex. Me and Keith train together all the time. For the last three to four weeks before my fights, it’s just me and him. We just couldn’t do that before fighting each other. And who would corner who? This is something that both of us feel, that because of everything we do together, we’re not comfortable ever fighting each other.’

So, while Evans predicts Jardine will defeat Jackson in the main event of UFC 96 -- ‘Keith’s the more versatile striker, and that’s what Forrest [Griffin] did to get Rampage frustrated; once you get Rampage frustrated, it’s over,’ -- he said he’d fight unbeaten Lyoto Machida if Jardine is victorious.

The pair have been friends since meeting during the Ultimate Fighter 2 reality television series, and Jardine was the one who recommended to trainer Greg Jackson that Evans join their respected training camp.

The only window that Evans left open for a possible fight against Jardine is that if the contender wants a richer pay day that would come by taking on the champion.

‘I don’t think it’s about the money, but I wouldn’t want to ever hold anyone back,’ Evans said. ‘If he really wanted to do it, we could sit down and talk about it, but we’d have to break up our camp.’

Evans understands the importance of money, as the UFC just tore up his earlier contract and gave him a new deal for terms he declined to disclose. He was paid $130,000 (bonus included) when he took the title from Griffin in a sellout pay-per-view fight at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas in December.

‘There’s been people saying [the UFC] is not paying its athletes how they portray them on TV,’ Evans said. ‘I think they’re doing better about what they’re paying fighters now.’

-- Lance Pugmire