Jon Jones says superfight with Anderson Silva remains possible

Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

As soon as Chris Weidman’s left hook sent Anderson Silva’s eyes rolling into the back of his head, the UFC’s accountants had to know that they were in for a busy work day on Monday, July 8.

The talk before the fight had Silva, then the UFC middleweight champion facing either UFC welterweight champion, Georges St. Pierre or UFC light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones in a superfight had he defeated Weidman on July 6 at UFC 162. He didn’t, and just like that all the projected revenue a superfight could have generated disappeared into the ether.

Instead of a superfight, the UFC will see Weidman defend his title against Silva in the main event of UFC 168. That fight card, which will take place on December 28 will do a nice number of pay per view buys and plant a ton of butts in the seats of the MGM Grand Garden Arena. However, Weidman versus Silva 2 won’t fill the UFC’s coffers like a Silva versus Jones or Silva versus St. Pierre fight would.

Jones recently said that the idea of a fight between himself and Silva shouldn’t be dismissed just yet. The light heavyweight kingpin, who is scheduled to meet Alexander Gustafsson on September 21 in the main event of UFC 165, told Fighters Only:

All Anderson has to do is win his next fight decisively and there’s the interest right there. It’s still on, the superfight. I’ve never really been overly anxious to face Anderson Silva though to be honest. I knew the fight could happen but I never had any desire to be the one to beat him or anything like that.

After he lost I Tweeted about my disappointment and that him losing sucked, but it was just because watching a champion lose always sucks. It’s like he’s also a member of this special league of gentlemen and when you see one of the guys get taken down it sucks. But Anderson, and any thought of a superfight, well, it’s still there.

If Jones gets past Gustafsson he is expected to face Glover Texeira in his next title defense. If Jones can add Teixeira to his growing list of victories and Silva can defeat Weidman in December look for the UFC to push Jones and Silva into a superfight some time in 2014.

More from Bloody Elbow:

Share this story

About the author

Trent Reinsmith

Trent Reinsmith is a freelance writer based out of Baltimore, MD. He has been covering sports for more than 15 years, with a focus on MMA for most of that time. Trent focuses on the day-to-day business of MMA — both inside and outside the cage — for Bloody Elbow.