Rashad Evans opens up about feeling emotionally "drained" before Jon Jones title fight at UFC 145: "It got personal"

The first true grudge match of Jon Jones' career took place at UFC 145, where he faced Rashad Evans. Now, years later, the latter had a sitdown on the OverDogs Podcast, detailing how taxing the leadup to the bout was, and of course, the matchup itself.

Evans, aftr all, was once not only a teammate of Jones, but a close friend. But the animosity between two men who were once so close was an unfamiliar experience for Evans.

"That one right there, I would say was probably one of the biggest learning lessons for me, because it was so much emotion going into that fight. I was with Greg Jackson, and there was a sense of betrayal with the whole thing with them now backing Jon, and Greg [Jackson] and Mike Winkeljohn. I had to leave my New Mexico family. So, it was me having to give the same sound bites over and over again, and we did this for months."

In fact, Evans believes it all affected him at UFC 145, where he lost to Jones via unanimous decision.

"We did a lot of face to face, where it got personal. It got to the point where that personal aspect of it, it just drained me. I just wanted to be done and over because it wasn't for a sound bite. It was something that was truly something that hurt me. During the fight, it was a hard fight as well because I wasn't able to divorce myself from the emotion."

Check out Rashad Evans' candid interview about his feud with Jon Jones:

The feud was sparked after 'Bones' had beaten Ryan Bader at UFC 126. 'Sugar' was expected to challenge Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua in a bid to regain his light heavyweight title. Unfortunately, a knee injury led to his withdrawal from the bout, with the UFC selecting Jones as a replacement.

Jones defeated Rua in one of the most dominant title wins in UFC history, settting up an explosive clash with Evans. Unfortunately for Evans, the Jackson MMA team chose to be in Jones' corner for the bout, which hurt him deeply, setting the stage for an ugly split.

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Jon Jones has had other personal feuds in MMA

After Rashad Evans, Jon Jones had some minor feuds, but none reached those personal depths until he faced Daniel Cormier at UFC 182. The enmity between the two men was at an all-time high.

However, despite his best efforts, Cormier still lost to Jones, and was left to wallow in defeat in tears. The pair had a rematch at UFC 214, which Jonees won via TKO before a positive PED test led to the result being overturned.