Anyone who believes the long-simmering feud between Rashad Evans and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson is manufactured should have been lucky enough to be on Wednesday's UFC 114 conference call, during which the two engaged in some heavy verbal warfare as their May 29 main event fight nears.First thing's first though, and that's the stakes. UFC President Dana White confirmed that the winner of the bout will be the first man to receive a crack at newly crowned light-heavyweight champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.
In reality though, the two hardly needed any more fuel for their fire.
At various points, the teleconference devolved from a question-and-answer session to a free-for-all with both fighters yelling over each other with observations, threats and, of course, unprintable insults.
Things got personal early and often.
In one of the few parts we can mention, Evans accused Jackson of dumbing himself down and presenting a negative image of himself as an African-American fighter.
"He does his little sambo thing," Evans said. "He says, 'Oh black-on-black crime,' and 'Oh, you can't use big words. I'm stupid.' Come on, I've talked to the dude. He's pretty smart. He knows what's going on. He says it's comedy? Why perpetuate the stereotype you're stupid? You're not stupid. Why perpetuate the stereotype that you can't think, you can't understand big words? You can't read. All that stupid stuff."
(Editor's Note: The following contains direct quotes. FanHouse and MMAFighting.com do not condone any homophobic language.)
"I never said all that," Jackson interjected. "That's another angle for you to try and talk smack. Go ahead. I do what I do, you do what you do. Why act all cocky and fake and play with your nipples and look all gay? Why do you do that?" (Editor's Note: several members of Team Greg Jackson including Evans often do the "nipple tweak" for good luck before fights.)
His voice rising, Jackson continued. "Why do you go that way? Why do you portray the stereotype of a black gay man, if you want go that way? Play with your nipples and act all gay, wear those little, tight shorts."
"That's what I wear," Evans said.
"I know, because you're gay," Jackson said.
Things only got worse from there, and though we can't repeat exactly what was said, you can use your imagination to make the logical progression.
Though White was on the call, there wasn't much he could do other than play referee and try to break them up every now and again to get some air.
"The WWE stuff is when the guys try to hype it up and make it look that way. These two don't like each other," White said. "It doesn't get any more real than this. It's a fight. I think people enjoy that, when two guys generally want to fight each other."
For the first time though, we got some of the back story of the original rift between them.
Jackson said that back in 2004, he was at a fight in which his teammate Hector Ramirez lost to Evans. Jackson said that in the midst of celebrating his win, Evans came over and said he wanted to train with him. Jackson found the timing of the request disrespectful.
Evans for his part said that before that fight with Ramirez, Jackson was his favorite fighter.
Things only got worse after Evans confronted Jackson in the cage after Rampage's UFC 96 victory over Evans' teammate Keith Jardine.
Perhaps after May 29, they can finally make some peace.
"If he whips me or I whip him, we'll probably be cool for a minute," Evans said.
Or can they?
"I'm a grown-ass man," Jackson said. "This is a sport and how I get paid, but this is the first time I'm going to enjoy beating the hell out of someone."
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