Anderson Silva is the middleweight king, but Jon Jones is too big and too skilled at his size for even the Spider to handle.
Jones recently appeared on the Max and Marcellus show, and he discussed the prospects of the fight. He was very clear in stating that it wasn’t something he was interested in:
It’s not that he won’t fight me or I won’t fight him. To be dead honest, it’s that we both have a lot to lose and we both respect each other a lot and we both are striving for personal greatness. I don’t want to crack on his greatness and I don’t want him cracking on my greatness.
I respect Jones’ honesty. He didn’t try to make it seem like others were holding a fight back. Though he may get some flack for allowing his financial reasons and personal feelings about Silva to interfere, I understand his position.
At Jones’ height (6’4″) and age (24), it isn’t likely he could come down to fight Silva at middleweight. He’s still growing into his body, Silva would have to come up to light heavyweight to make it happen.
Silva is 6’2″ and 37 years old, he is what he is at this point.
Because of the size difference, calling a Jones vs. Silva fight a mismatch doesn’t mean that Jones is a better fighter. It’s just that seeing Silva that heavy wouldn’t really be the Spider we know, and the matchup would not end well for the greatest MMA fighter of all time.
Jones is considered a big light heavyweight at 6’4″. Dana White believes Jones will eventually be a heavyweight, per David King of Yahoo. Putting Silva in the octagon with a light heavyweight/heavyweight tweener is a bit much.
Not to mention one as skilled and dangerous as Jones.
Jones and Silva at middleweight would be a real challenge for the Spider, having Silva move up is suicide. I hope Spider finishes his career at middleweight.
There is no need to cloud his greatness with an unfair fight.
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