{"id":208020,"date":"2016-10-20T18:42:44","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T01:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=208020"},"modified":"2016-10-20T18:42:44","modified_gmt":"2016-10-21T01:42:44","slug":"exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE – Rashad Evans on Kennedy fight: “It’s the fight business, not the friend business.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rashad Evans has his hands full for his middleweight debut as he takes on the always-dangerous Tim Kennedy. While Kennedy hasn’t fought since 2014, he does already hold a dominant win over the current champion in Michael Bisping.<\/p>\n

“Suga” Rashad spoke exclusively to BJPENN.COM Radio and discussed his experiences training with Kennedy<\/a> and revealed some excellent behind-the-scenes information on his upcoming opponent for UFC 205.<\/p>\n

\u201cI match up pretty good with Tim, we trained together two times, and he was a great training partner, he really helped me out. He\u2019s just a really good guy. \u201c<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI was a little disappointed when I heard he was talking trash, but it was it is. It\u2019s the fight business, not the friend business. He was talking like \u201coh Rashad, he asked to fight me\u201d. Look, I don\u2019t ask for fights, I don\u2019t ask for anybody. They say \u201chey, this is your fight\u201d, and I\u2019m just happy to fight anybody. I look at the sport much different than I did before. I just want to fight.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Rashad<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of mutual respect (when we trained together). It was a good back-and-forth. We worked the ground game and transitions into takedowns, stuff like that. I\u2019m pretty familiar with his game. I\u2019m sure he\u2019s gonna try to clinch me up. It has been a long time since we trained together, but I know what Tim likes to do, he knows what I like to do, so it\u2019s just gonna be a chess match.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“His ground and transitional grappling, it\u2019s really exhausting and he\u2019s done it to a lot of fighters, a lot of good fighters. Michael Bisping was a really hard guy for me to hold down, and he (Kennedy) held him down with no problem. Tim\u2019s good like that. He\u2019s not the easiest matchup for my middleweight debut, but I know if I can get by a guy like this, I can take on whatever the division has to offer.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Evans and Kennedy will share the cage at UFC 205<\/a>\u00a0on November 12 for the UFC historic first-ever event in New York State.<\/p>\n

Who do you see winning this fight between Evans and Kennedy? Sound off, PENN Nation!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rashad Evans has his hands full for his middleweight debut as he takes on the always-dangerous Tim Kennedy. While Kennedy hasn’t fought since 2014, he does already hold a dominant win over the current champion in Michael Bisping. “Suga” Rashad spoke exclusively to BJPENN.COM Radio and discussed his experiences training with Kennedy and revealed some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":201228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10226],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nEXCLUSIVE - Rashad Evans on Kennedy fight: "It's the fight business, not the friend business." | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EXCLUSIVE - Rashad Evans on Kennedy fight: "It's the fight business, not the friend business." | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rashad Evans has his hands full for his middleweight debut as he takes on the always-dangerous Tim Kennedy. While Kennedy hasn’t fought since 2014, he does already hold a dominant win over the current champion in Michael Bisping. “Suga” Rashad spoke exclusively to BJPENN.COM Radio and discussed his experiences training with Kennedy and revealed some […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-21T01:42:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Tim-Kennedy-Rashad-Evans.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"bjpenndotcom\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/7c8b8d1602cb47040b7a5cd250d5b90a\"},\"headline\":\"EXCLUSIVE – Rashad Evans on Kennedy fight: “It’s the fight business, not the friend business.”\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-21T01:42:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-21T01:42:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/\"},\"wordCount\":389,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Rashad Evans\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2016\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/\",\"name\":\"EXCLUSIVE - Rashad Evans on Kennedy fight: \\\"It's the fight business, not the friend business.\\\" | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-21T01:42:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-21T01:42:44+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Rashad Evans\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"EXCLUSIVE – Rashad Evans on Kennedy fight: “It’s the fight business, not the friend business.”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA & UFC News, Results & Fight Videos\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":148,\"caption\":\"| BJPenn.com\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/7c8b8d1602cb47040b7a5cd250d5b90a\",\"name\":\"bjpenndotcom\",\"description\":\"UFC NEWS - MMA NEWS\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/bjpenndotcom\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"EXCLUSIVE - Rashad Evans on Kennedy fight: \"It's the fight business, not the friend business.\" | BJPenn.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"EXCLUSIVE - Rashad Evans on Kennedy fight: \"It's the fight business, not the friend business.\" | BJPenn.com","og_description":"Rashad Evans has his hands full for his middleweight debut as he takes on the always-dangerous Tim Kennedy. While Kennedy hasn’t fought since 2014, he does already hold a dominant win over the current champion in Michael Bisping. “Suga” Rashad spoke exclusively to BJPENN.COM Radio and discussed his experiences training with Kennedy and revealed some […]","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/","og_site_name":"| BJPenn.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","article_published_time":"2016-10-21T01:42:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":730,"height":380,"url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Tim-Kennedy-Rashad-Evans.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"bjpenndotcom","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_site":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"bjpenndotcom","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/"},"author":{"name":"bjpenndotcom","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/7c8b8d1602cb47040b7a5cd250d5b90a"},"headline":"EXCLUSIVE – Rashad Evans on Kennedy fight: “It’s the fight business, not the friend business.”","datePublished":"2016-10-21T01:42:44+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-21T01:42:44+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/"},"wordCount":389,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Rashad Evans"],"inLanguage":"en-US","copyrightYear":"2016","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/","name":"EXCLUSIVE - Rashad Evans on Kennedy fight: \"It's the fight business, not the friend business.\" | BJPenn.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-10-21T01:42:44+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-21T01:42:44+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/exclusive-rashad-evans-kennedy-fight-fight-business-not-friend-business\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MMA News","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Rashad Evans","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rashad-evans\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"EXCLUSIVE – Rashad Evans on Kennedy fight: “It’s the fight business, not the friend business.”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","name":"| BJPenn.com","description":"MMA & UFC News, Results & Fight Videos","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization","name":"| BJPenn.com","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","width":600,"height":148,"caption":"| BJPenn.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/7c8b8d1602cb47040b7a5cd250d5b90a","name":"bjpenndotcom","description":"UFC NEWS - MMA NEWS","sameAs":["http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn"],"url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/bjpenndotcom\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208020"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}