Anderson Silva Says If He Were To Fight Jon Jones, It Needs To Be At A Catchweight

Everyone wants to see Anderson Silva fight Jon Jones in what would be arguably the biggest fight in mixed martial arts history. Today, the fight took one step closer to becoming a reality.

After weeks of both fighters adamantly saying they would not fight each other, Silva said in a recent interview that while a fight with Jones doesn’t excite or motivate him, he is open to meeting the light heavyweight champion in a catchweight non-title bout.

Read what Silva told Globo TV about fighting Jones below (translated by Google).

People are talking about it so much … I have no such intention, it has something that motivates me, just because they have other athletes on my team, as Nogueira, Maldonado, Beans, Cauldron, which is the weight of it. My weight is 84kg, this is my title. But people talk so much, and we are the official UFC. Of course, I do not want to be talking, but what if he goes there and accepted the money that Dana will give him wanting to fight? It’ll be difficult. It’s not the money that motivates me to fight; I fight because I like it. So, I dunno … I would not. But if it happens, would be that the weight-matched. Not worth his belt. I already got mine and I do not want to leave a title dropped.

With Silva sitting at the age of 37 and holding essentially every major record in UFC history, only superfight are in his future. At this point in time, there are no bigger match ups than Jones.

UFC President Dana White said last week at the UFC 153 post-fight press conference in Rio de Janeiro that while Silva is was not thrilled at the prospect of a champion vs. champion match with Jones, he believed he could change the Brazilian’s mind when he saw the amount of money that would be offered.

“I think the Jon Jones fight is a big fight. And I know my man says, ‘no, no, no,’ but the amount of money that would be offered for that fight, I guarantee you, I will make Anderson Silva say, ‘yes, yes, yes.’”

“He’s playing games with me, that’s what he’s doing. I know how he works and I know how he thinks. He always has this thing of being humble, where it’s not like ‘Yeah, I’m gonna fight Jon Jones and I’ll beat him.’ He never does that. But, I know how he is. He wants to show everybody by the time he leaves, who the man is.”

It seems Silva is softening on his stance on the fight and while it likely won’t be the next fight for “The Spider” since Jones already has a match up with Chael Sonnen scheduled for April, MMA fans are salivating over the fact the bout could happen one day.

Mike Bohn, founder and lead writer of FightCove.com, wrote this article. You can follow Mike on Twitter at @MikeBohnMMA. Also, follow @FightCove on Twitter and “Like” Fight Cove on Facebook.