Greg Jackson says he has the utmost respect for Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, but he does chuckle at Rampage’s claim that Jon Jones had someone spying on his training ahead of their fight at UFC 135.
“We don’t need to spy,” the trainer said. “All the information we need is on film of him fighting. You don’t need to spy when you have a -- I wouldn’t say roadmap, but when you understand what’s going to happen in the fight. Even if they try something new, you can see examples of that in their past fights.”
Jackson will be in Jones’ corner Saturday when he defends his light heavyweight title. He won’t be in Georges St. Pierre’s corner at UFC 137, though. He joined the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show to explain why and also discuss several other topics:
Jackson on whether Jones has been tested yet: “I will say the nice thing about Jon is that early on he wasn’t nearly as dominant as he is now. When he was fighting against Stephan Bonnar or [Andre] Gusmao or a lot of these guys, he won the fights, but some of them went into the third round. He was pushed a little bit. He was getting really tired, and the other guy was getting tired too. You kind of get a sense of him from those fights. Even the Jake O’Brien fight, he was good, but he’d mess up. He’d get caught in some things here or there. He’s been tested already a little bit.”
On how much Jones and former teammate Rashad Evans trained together: “Actually not as much as you might think. They did a lot together when Jon was helping Rashad get ready for ‘Shogun,’ and they trained a little together before that, but not an everyday thing at all.”
On whether Evans influenced Jones: “I think [Evans] was an influence on everybody. I mean, Rashad was a huge member of this team. I think he not only influenced Jon, which of course he did, he influenced everybody. He was a great guy on the team, a very valuable friend and I still consider him a friend. He was valuable to everybody. He was an amazing guy. I think he influenced Jon and he influenced everybody, for sure.”
On Evans leaving the team: “Everybody makes decisions and choices, and it certainly was his choice to do that. We could have worked something out differently than that maybe -- I’m not sure -- but I certainly made mistakes in that I didn’t have the protocols that we have in place now. That was my mistake. I am not infallible; I do make mistakes, but I try to learn from it as best I can. Now with this GSP-Carlos Condit fight, both of those guys have been with me for years and there’s no drama, there’s no animosity, there’s no nothing. Because after that [Evans-Jones] situation, I saw the mistakes that I made personally by not having things ready for that eventuality to happen, and I fixed it. I feel bad that I didn’t have those protocols in place. However, reactions to that are always on the individual. Everybody decides what they’re going to do in those situations.”
On the UFC 137 matchup between Georges St. Pierre and Carlos Condit, two of Jackson’s fighters: “I’m not going to be training either one of them for this fight. I’m kind of stepping out. Carlos is training in Albuquerque, but Chris Luttrell and Mike Winkeljohn will be his corners. I’m not doing any of the game planning or anything like that for him, and the same thing with Georges. Firas [Zahabi] and John Danaher and of course Phil Nurse will be doing the other corner. It’s a good thing. Both of them are going to have a good fight, and I’m just going to stay out of it and let the other coaches shine and just kind of hide in a corner somewhere.”
On how much Condit and St. Pierre have trained together: “Hardly any. I don’t remember them really training at all because their camps would never coincide. I don’t think Carlos and Georges have trained together that much at all because when Georges would be in town, Carlos would be done with his fight and then vice versa.”
On whether he’ll watch the GSP-Condit bout: “No, not at all. I mean … the fans are going to love it, but I’m not really a fan. Those are both my boys, and I love them. I understand this needs to happen, but I don’t have to like it, so to speak. I’m stepping out. Let the fans watch. I’m sure it’s going to be an amazing fight. Those guys are awesome. I’ll let the fans have their fun and I’ll go eat dinner somewhere.”
On whether he’ll watch the fight after it’s over: “I’m sure people will tell me [what happens]. That’s all I need is people to tell me. It’s not something that I feel I need to do.”
Source - Sherdog
