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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Last week, after the UFC brought in a number of their top names for their 2015 schedule unveiling press conference, UFC Light Heavyweight Champ Jon Jones and former UFC Middleweight Champ Anderson Silva squared off in a sparring session away from the eyes of fans and media. The only glimpse given came from UFC President Dana White, who posted the following photo to Instagram with the caption below:
"The Superfight between @jonnybones and @spiderandersonsilva went down last nite @ufc headquarters #noppv #noticketssold #rockyvsapollo"
Jones was asked his thoughts on Silva this week in an interview with FoxSports.com, and he explained why he's not interested in ever actually fighting "The Spider" in the cage.
"I just look up to him so much. I don't have many people that I've been able to look at in my lifetime and just think, wow, how cool is it to be that guy?" Jones said. "Look at what he's done. Jordan, LeBron, Anderson, Kobe. I consider them all in the same type of class. The Jeters. Athletes of that caliber don't come around too often."
"Once you fight somebody, all that stuff kind of goes out the window," he continued. "So I would love to have him in my back pocket as that mentor, advisor, someone I can talk to in the next few years to come, instead of the quick check and then you just ruin a legit friendship with one of the greatest fighters of all time."
"He always speaks very highly of me. I always speak very highly of him... I just don't want to be the guy to beat him, even though it's happened already. I don't want to lose to him. I don't want to beat him."
Penick's Analysis: Much like there's a certain respect I have for the reasons fighters may not want to fight a friend or close training partner, this is another one of those situations where it's absolutely not a fight that has to happen. Would it have been something special for fans? Of course. But Jones is right about how he'd be sacrificing something he doesn't want to sacrifice by having that fight come together. It's obviously more important for him to keep Silva in a certain regard, and that's OK. It became a fight that was unlikely to ever happen anyway with Silva's year in 2013, so fans aren't completely missing out on a viable matchup by them avoiding the fight.
[Jon Jones art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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