MMA Quick Hits 4/18/11: Rashad Evans calls Jon Jones fake, Jorge Santiago is better than Wanderlei Silva

Rashad Evans took to his Twitter account to respond to Jon Jones’ ESPN interview where Jones said, “We fought each other in practice. A finish has been possible several times and it has always been me finishing him. I never did it out of respect that he was the elder of the school.” Evans responded with 4 tweets, “[Jones] will [be] mma’s version of Milli Vinilli… Wait until the curtain comes down [cause] it will!” And another, “[I'm] telling [you] that record is about [to] start skipping! ‘Girl [you] know, girl [you] know, know,… It’s true, true true’ (laughs).” And another, “[Jones] is a swagger jacker.” And one last jab, “He is fake! The fighting is off the hook but as a person he is fake!” This fight is going to have a lot of hype behind it. Hopefully it won’t become Rashad/Rampage 2. But for Evans to call him “fake” and to “wait until the curtain comes down” is a little eye-opening. I don’t think Jones needs to be saying anything about Evans for people to watch. People already think Jones is the best fighter on Earth, so they’ll watch. Some people even think he’s better than Anderson Silva…which is beyond ridiculous.

Brian Stann discusses with MMAFighting.com Wanderlei Silva’s reason for not wanting to fight an “American hero.” “I buy his reason because I don’t see Wanderlei ever having to lie to anybody about anything. He’s got nothing to prove for the rest of his life, as far as I’m concerned, especially in this sport…For every one Brian Stann fan, there’s about 50 Wanderlei Silva fans across the world. He’s an international superstar. There’s no way he would have gotten booed coming into that fight. But things happen…At the end of the day, I got a better fight. I love Wanderlei, he’s the guy that I said since the WEC that would be my dream fight just because I always loved watching him fight, but let’s face it, Jorge Santiago is ranked in the top 10 for the last two years. This is a better fight for me.” I don’t know if it’s better. Like he said, Silva has a ton of fans, so beating him would mean more in the eyes of the masses. True, beating Santiago means more to the hardcore fans, but the hardcore fans don’t pay the bills, if you get my meaning.

According to multiple published reports, the UFC has added Thiago Tavares vs. Spencer Fisher and Luiz Cane vs. Stanislav Nedkov to UFC 134, which takes place on August 27 in Brazil. Yep, just as I suspected, more Brazilian fighters added to the Rio card. Wait for it…there will be more. Very smart move by the UFC brass. I’m looking for a “Big Nog” sighting. Who wants to bet?

Art Jimmerson and Dan “The Beast” Severn have thrown their names into the hat to face the legendary Royce Gracie at UFC 134 in Rio. Yeah, I don’t want to see either one of them try to get back a loss that Gracie hung on them. While they are both in shape (Severn is actually on a 9-fight win streak), they are both bigger than Gracie, and probably couldn’t make the 170lb weight limit. Besides, why would I want to watch a yesteryear fight?

Dustin Hazelett told MMAjunkie.com’s Dann Stupp that he is putting his fighting career on hold and has gone back to school. Hazelett is also is focusing on teaching and jiu-jitsu competitions during the break from MMA. Hazelett has been attending EMT courses at Scarlet Oaks, where he’ll finish in June, and hopes to find a job with 24-on/48-off hours. Not a bad move. While he exploded onto the scene, he’s lost 3 straight. Time to regroup and see if MMA is truly for him. I’m sure he’ll be back. He’s barely 24 years old. And if not, he’ll have a career lined up.