Jon Jones (pictured) said that Anderson Silva abused the former middleweight champion’s gift. (Photo by Al Bello/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC Via Getty Images)
UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones doesn’t look kindly at Anderson Silva’s performance at UFC 162.
At a press conference kicking off the ticket sales for “UFC 165: Jones vs. Gustafsson,” Jones was critical of Silva’s behavior in the Octagon. The 205-pound champ said Silva has proven in his career that he has a gift, but that he took advantage of it last weekend in his loss to Chris Weidman.
“He abused his gift. He disrespected the gift, disrespected his opponent,” Jones said. “Martial arts is traditionally … based around honor and integrity and treating people with respect and he somehow lost sight of that and paid the ultimate price for it.
Jones, who faces Alexander Gustafsson on Sept. 21 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, has recently been centered around talks of a potential superfight with Silva. But after UFC 162, much of the talk changed from what will be to what could have been.
The light heavyweight title holder, however, isn’t completely done riding the Silva wave. Referring to the former middleweight champion as someone he “looks up to,” Jones revealed that he’s still very much a fan of “The Spider.”
“I’m not over the Anderson Silva hype train,” he said. “I know exactly where he’s at. You can tell where he’s at by the way he was fighting.”
At this time, Silva’s future is uncertain and he has downplayed the idea of getting an immediate rematch with Weidman, leaving many to wonder what his next step will be.
For Jones, it’s likely that a superfight is no longer in the books. All that remains is the bad taste in his mouth that he shares with all Silva fans.
“Initially, I thought it sucked,” Jones said of Silva’s loss by technical knockout. “Anderson Silva is a guy that I look up to a lot, and to see a great champion go down always sucks.”
