Jon Jones: Anderson Silva ‘Abused His Gift’

When Chris Weidman knocked out middleweight champion Anderson Silva at UFC 162, he pulled off arguably one of the biggest upsets in the promotion’s history. Silva’s downfall, many believed, was his showboating, something that he has been known for throughout his entire career.

Weidman, a Hofstra University graduate and New York State wrestling champion, boasts a flawless 10-0 record in his four-year MMA career, and has now replaced Silva as the #1 middleweight in the world. The 38-year-old former champion has dropped to second place.

One person that was especially surprised by Weidman’s victory was UFC light heavyweight Jon Jones, who tweeted simply “this sucks” after Silva’s loss. He has since deleted the tweet.

During a pre-fight press conference for UFC 165, where he’ll defend his title against Alexander Gustafsson, Jones said he was shocked to see Silva lose the way he did.

“Initially I thought it sucked, Anderson Silva is a guy I look up to a lot,” Jones said. “To see a great champion go down so obviously my initial reaction was yeah, this sucked.”

But Jones also said that Silva had no one to blame but himself for the loss.

“I think that Anderson Silva is a magnificent fighter. I think he has an extraordinary gift, I think he’s got to the point where he really believes in his gift, and he’s comfortable with his gift, and he abused his gift. He disrespected the gift by disrespecting his opponent,” Jones said.

“Martial arts is a sport that’s traditionally based around honor and integrity and treating people with respect and he somehow lost sight of that. He paid the ultimate price for it,” he added, even stating that the “war gods” had punished Silva for his hubris.

While UFC president Dana White has said that a Silva-Weidman rematch will be “the biggest fight in UFC history,” he said it is unlikely that the fight will take place in 2013. White said he was “very tempted” for UFC 168, the promotion’s last fight of the year, but later said the fight would occur on a date that has yet to be determined.

Do you agree with Jon Jones that Anderson Silva “abused his gift”?