Jon Jones had a conversation with fellow former UFC champion Anderson Silva that boosted his confidence to an even greater degree ahead of Saturday’s UFC 214 title rematch with Daniel Cormier.
Jones (22-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC), who challenges Cormier (19-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) for light heavyweight gold in the UFC 214 headliner, has always spoke highly of Silva throughout his career. They’ve trained together on multiple occasions and also share a commonality in having fought “D.C.”
Jones, of course, beat Cormier in their first encounter at UFC 182 in January 2015. The rematch has been scheduled multiple times, with one attemped at UFC 200 in July 2016. The fight fell apart during fight week when Jones was flagged with a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) violation, which led to “The Spider” stepping in as a replacement on roughly 48 hours’ notice.
Cormier beat Silva (34-8 MMA, 17-4 UFC) quite handily by unanimous decision with the help of a wresting-heavy game plan. The Brazilian apparently had some takeaways from the fight, though, and needless to say, they weren’t very kind.
“When it comes to the fight, basically he just told me to know what I’m capable of,” Jones said on today’s UFC 214 conference call. “He said basically in a roundabout way, he said: ‘Make sure you know what you’re capable of.’ He said it was almost surprising to feel the level of fear (he) felt from Daniel. He said to me, ‘I’m an old man now, and Daniel had to take me down round after round because I felt fear coming off of him. This man has fear in his heart.’ He said, ‘Know what you’re capable of, go out there, and you take this from him.’ In a roundabout way that’s what he said.”
UFC 214 takes place at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. Jones vs. Cormier headlines the pay-per-view main card following prelims on FXX and UFC Fight Pass.
Although Jones said he took Silva’s advice to heart, he also knows that he’s an entirely different fighter from the longtime former UFC middleweight champion. He strongly believes Cormier won’t be able to do the same things to him as he did Silva, which is a huge advantage in his mind.
“Anderson Silva’s my idol,” Jones said. “He’s been the guy I’ve respected the most since I was 19 years old and I got into this sport. To hear him have that level of faith in me and pretty much tell me that it’s already done, I just need to go out there and do what I’m capable of. It felt great coming from him. One thing about me and Anderson is my takedown defense is solid, dude. There’s no taking me down if things don’t go your way. There’s definitely no laying on me in half guard the whole time the way that happened.”
Cormier responded to the comments Jones relayed from Silva and essentially brushed them all off as meaningless. He believes the fact Silva lost to him gives him a skewed view of reality.
“It’s good that Anderson called him with advice, but that would almost be like me having Glover Teixeira calling me to tell me how to beat Jon Jones,” Cormier said. “He lost. It’s much easier to give advice about someone you lost to. He doesn’t want to see me win. I beat him. Go get Jon to go do the job he couldn’t do. It doesn’t bother me. I couldn’t really care less if everyone calls him and tells him how he should beat me or how they felt when they were in the octagon with me.”
For more on UFC 214, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
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