The 5 biggest UFC feuds of the decade (2010-2019)

#3 ‘Rampage’ Jackson vs. Rashad Evans

Rampage Jackson's feud with Rashad Evans became unbelievably personal.

There have been very few feuds in UFC history that got quite as personal as this one did, and the promotion tried – and failed – on numerous occasions, with various pairings, to reproduce the bitter rivalry that ‘Rampage’ Jackson and Rashad Evans built during their stint as coaches on the 10th season of The Ultimate Fighter.

The feud began in early 2009, when ‘Rampage’ defeated Evans’ training partner Keith Jardine to claim a shot at the UFC Light-Heavyweight title that, at that point, Evans held. ‘Suga’ would lose the title to Lyoto Machida before the fight with ‘Rampage’ could be finalised, but rather than book a Jackson vs. Machida title fight, the UFC decided to capitalise on the burgeoning heat between the two, and installed them as TUF coaches to build to their own fight instead.

Prior to TUF we’d only seen one relatively heated staredown between the two, but the reality show tapings kicked things into a new gear entirely. The two fighters came close to blows on multiple occasion, and things got so personal at one point that ‘Rampage’ actually accused Evans of being an ‘Uncle Tom’, an incredibly offensive insult towards an African-American like ‘Suga’.

Despite the fight being delayed due to a quasi-retirement from Jackson – who left the UFC temporarily to pursue acting following his casting in the 2010 movie The A-Team – by the time the promotion rebooked it for May 2010’s UFC 114, the heat somehow increased, to the point that the show drew over a million buys on pay-per-view.

It would be Evans who came away from the feud with his hand raised; he stunned Jackson with a right hand in the opening seconds of the fight and then used his grappling to dominate proceedings despite a late knockdown from ‘Rampage’, who was accused by some of not taking the fight seriously. Following the fight the hatchet was apparently buried – the two men have since starred in a film together – but it remains one of the most heated feuds in UFC history.