Jones, Evans Twitter Battle Highlights New Social Frontier

Jon Jones

Jon Jones should be thankful that he’ll eventually get to meet Rashad Evans inside the Octagon, because the UFC light heavyweight champion is taking a beating from his future adversary on Twitter.

After a cooling off period in the war of words between the former friends turned bitter rivals, things heated up again on Friday in the wake of the news that Jones will no longer be undergoing the surgical procedure that forced him out of his meeting with Evans at UFC 133.

Since the former teammates’ relationship fracture leading up to Jones’ victory over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Evans’ adjective of choice for describing Jones has been “fake.”

In addition to dropping the word in a number of his 140-character online assaults on Jones, Evans has tapped into ’90s pop culture to add some humor to his approach as well:

he is fake! The fighting is off the hook but as a person he is fake!

@jonnybones will b mma’s version of Milli Vinilli.. Wait until the curtain comes down cuz it will!!

im telling u that record is about 2 start skipping! “girl u know,girl u know, know,… It’s true,true true”.. Lol

This week’s rekindling of the verbal battle started with a combination of the two as well, as Evans got the Twitter-verse buzzing, following up his question of the day with a reference to In Living Color:

Question: if u r or were so confident then y fake a thumb injury? Cuz just between me & y’all he don’t need surgery!

“but I ain’t one 2 gossip so u didnt hear it from me”! (ala Living Color) 4 u young folk! Lol

When the retweets came flooding in asking if Evans for serious, Evans replied with less comedy and more food for thought:

If I’m lying, I’m dying! Ask @jonnybones when is his surgery & who was his dr! He so fake he fake surgeries!! Now that’s fake!

As you would expect, the focus quickly shifted from Evans’ claims to actually finding out the truth. With the pressure on to provide answers, it was Jones’ manager Malki Kawa – not the light heavyweight champion himself – who delivered the news.

Kawa, the president of First Round Management who has risen to prominence as Jones has climbed to the top of the light heavyweight division, delivered the following tweets in succession Friday morning:

I guess its time to put out the truth. @Jonnybones suffered a tear in his thumb in 2 different spots… Every dr he saw said to have surgery

We went to meet with the surgeon on wed and after he looked at @Jonnybones he thought that surgery was a bit evasive and bones didn’t have

For the record, every doctor @Jonnybones saw was a @ufc referred doctor. The very last one on the day before surgery thought against it…

And to be quite frank, @Jonnybones never wanted to have surgery, the doctors advice all along was to have the procedure done.

of course not rashad is lying… @stevepolitz: @malkikawa is @SugaRashadEvans telling the truth about Jon then or not?

While I commend Kawa for being the point man on this for his client, his choice of words in a couple places didn’t help Jones at all, starting with saying “its time to put out the truth.”

Jones hasn’t been lying about his injury; he does have tendon damage between his thumb and forefinger.

The problem is that when Kawa uses the term “truth” to describe the series of tweets that followed, it gives credence to Evans’ claims that Jones is fake and leaves people wondering why Team Jones went full blast with their surgery announcement in the first place.

I understand the original intention – let people know the new champion would rather fix it now so it doesn’t remain a problem in the future – but all fans and critics see at this stage is Jones removing himself from his first title defense for a surgical procedure he’s no longer having. While he’s not ducking Evans, you can’t really fault people for being upset with Friday’s development and wondering if the Milli Vanilli references might have merit.

Again, Kawa does his client no favors by closing out the morning Twitter session by saying, “Of course not rashad is lying” in response to a fan question.

Saying Evans was lying feels like a pot calling the kettle black, considering he was right about Jones not going under the knife, and he and his client who weren’t completely forthcoming with the facts until their hand was forced.