Pictured above is the intense stare down between UFC 145 headliners, Jon Jones and Rashad Evans, during today’s pre-fight press conference.
Jones has been known for not looking his opponent in the eye, and the champion has explained his reasoning in the past, stating that it’s to mess with his opponent:
“If you look really closely at my past fights, I never actually look into the guy’s eyes. Nor do I do it at weigh-ins. At weigh-ins normally I just look off into the audience and it kind of plays a little mind game on my opponents a lot of times. They don’t really know how to react to that.”
“As far as when I’m in the Octagon, I’m always looking at the opponent’s body when I’m standing there. I’m big on not fighting an opponent’s name, his credentials, his past fights, his face. I fight the body and when I’m standing across and I’m looking at his body, I’m really just humanizing the guy, and looking at imperfection in his physique or… You know there’s a quote that says, ‘If a guy looks soft in the mid-section, usually he is soft in the mid-section.’ So I’m just humanizing the opponent. That’s what I’m doing.
This time, he made an exception for his former teammate turned rival, as he obliged to maintain eye contact with Evans through out the face-off.
Related: UFC 145 Pre-Fight Press Conference Video | UFC 145: Rashad Evans Trains With Roy Jones, Jr.
You can view the complete gallery from the very talented Esther Lin here.
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