Jon Jones Would Jump At The Opportunity To Fight Chris Weidman
UFC super fights have been few and far between in the past 15 years, and have proved a very testing task for the promotion to bring to fruition. Fights such as Anderson Silva vs. Georges St-Pierre, Anthony Pettis vs. Jose Aldo, Anderson Silva vs. Jon Jones and many others have either fallen at the last hurdle or just not been a realistic plot.
One potential super fight that has flown under the radar in a big way is Jones against the middleweight champion Chris Weidman. Until recently, ‘The All-American’ didn’t really have the stock to be considered for that kind of match up. The difference now is that Weidman has two wins over Anderson Silva, a win against Lyoto Machida, and could add another ex-champion’s scalp to his record if he beats Vitor Belfort at UFC 181.
The light-heavyweight champion is all too aware of Weidman’s growing popularity, and told Sherdog.com that he would be more than happy to go up against the middleweight boss:
“Oh, man, I think that would be awesome. I would absolutely jump at the opportunity to have a super fight with Chris Weidman. I respect him a lot as a person and as a champion, and I think that that fight would make great sales — absolutely.”
At this point in both men’s careers, the super fight could come at a perfect time. It would truly be the most defining moment in the career of the winner, and would send them in to the realm of the greatest MMA fighter alive, period. The talk then turned to the animosity between ‘Bones’ and his upcoming UFC 178 title challenger Daniel Cormier:
“I’m not going to say that I hate him. I don’t hate him. It’s not even that I don’t like him. It’s just that I’m a fierce competitor. I’m a fierce competitor and he’s a fierce competitor, and we both know what’s ahead of us and that’s real competition, good competition. You need to take on a certain attitude to be able to meet that challenge and to do your best, so we’ve both got our game faces on, and, unfortunately, those game faces are ugly.”
The ugliness that Jones is referring to is the brawl with “DC” at the UFC 178 media day in Las Vegas, and the subsequently leaked footage of a hot mic catching the two exchanging bitter insults and barbs. A win over Cormier on September 27 would truly set the stage for a super fight with Weidman, but there might be a certain Swedish ‘Mauler’ who would be rather unhappy about that.
What do you think, could Alexander Gustafsson be put to one side if Jones and Weidman are both victorious, or would a super fight play second fiddle to what could be one of the greatest rematches ever?
