Jon Jones is fine with Anderson Silva backing Vitor Belfort – UFC News
Earlier this week, it was reported that middleweight champion Anderson Silva is backing ‘old lion’ Vitor Belfort for his fight against UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. While many thought of it as Silva’s sign of ending friendship with Jones, the
latter is pretty much fine with the notion.
“As a Brazilian, I’ll always root for the Brazilian, even though I have a very good friendship with Jones,” said Silva in a Brazilian TV program on Tuesday.
He added, “Whenever I’m with him, I ask [Jones] to conduct his career in a different way, because he is very young and is always asking me something. But I’ll be rooting for Brazil, yes. May the best man win, but I’m rooting for Brazil.”
It should be noted here that Silva had criticised and blamed Jones for the cancellation of UFC 151 card. Therefore, the entire scenario seemed as if Silva is not quite happy with Jones and is not in the mood of supporting him.
However, Jones’ camp has shrugged down rumours of Jon Jones being furious over Silva’s stance.
“Anderson isn’t saying anything bad about Jon,” said Jones’ manager in an interview with ESPN.com.
“The heritage thing is taken into account and that’s fine. I understand that. Anderson is a really good dude. He’s always been really good to Jon. And Jon has always had a really good relationship with him. It should not affect anything,” said Malki Kawa,
Anderson’s manager.
Moreover, Malki added that he believes Jon Jones has higher chances of winning at UFC 152 against Vitor Belfort, as he has been able to defend his title for a long time against the best fighters in the division.
However, he did add that if Vitor Belfort uses his explosiveness and jiu-jitsu, he might have a chance to win, as he is very good at these two things.
For now, Silva is backing up Vitor, considering he is a Brazilian. On the other hand, Jon Jones’ camp is good with Silva’s choice, regardless of the fact that Silva is a good friend of Jones. No clashes between the camps are taking place.
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