Vitor Belfort On Training With Jon Jones: The Media Is Taking It Too Far

A story emerged yesterday from Brazilian sports website Sportv.globo which revealed UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones and and his former opponent Vitor Belfort are set to start training together.

Jones had been quoted to have said the following regarding the matter to Globo’s Combate: “I’m planning to train with Vitor on Friday in Miami. I’m meeting him in a private gym, we’ll train together, see if we have good chemistry and maybe we’ll become training partners in the future. I don’t know if he’ll join Jackson’s. He looked for me, called me, said he’d like to train with me.”

Well, according to “The Phenom” himself, that isn’t exactly true.

Belfort, who lost to Jones via submission in 2012, said Jones’ statement isn’t exactly true. He explained the situation through Twitter:

“”I want to clear the air that on the rumor of me training with Jon Jones. The office that represent me wanted to use Jon for a commericial in brazil so I called Malki. He was with Jon at the time and Jon got on the phone to talk with me.

We had a friendly talk and he said let’s train one day and I said sure one day let’s train. It wasn’t a serious talk about training. I am a Blackzilian and I am not training with Jon. He is a great guy and I admire him but the media taking to far.”

So it looks the former opponents won’t be rolling together anytime soon.

It’s unlikely “The Phenom” will be losing any sleep over the situation, the Brazilian now has bigger issues to address. Yesterday officials confirmed Belfort had stepped in on short notice for Wanderlei Silva and will now meet Chael Sonnen in the co-main event of UFC 175.

The 37-year old got the chance to take on Sonnen after “The American Gangsters” original opponent Silva was scratched from UFC 175 when he failed to get a licence for the bout. The fight is expected to be a title eliminator.

But don’t be expecting to see Belfort around Jackson’s MMA leading up to the rivals fight.