Jon Jones says Anderson Silva called him, talked trash about Daniel Cormier

Not long ago, former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones Tweeted that he had received a surprise phone call from middleweight legend Anderson Silva. During yesterday’s UFC 214 conference call, Jones elaborated that Silva’s call surrounded Jones’ UFC 214 title fight with Daniel Cormier. Apparently, Silva wanted to assure the former champ that Cormier has “fear in his heart” – which makes him a beatable opponent for Jones.

Jones paraphrased Anderson’s Silva’s words (h/t MMAFighting.com).

“He said, ‘It was almost surprising the level of fear I felt from Daniel.’ He said to me, ‘I’m an old man now, and Daniel had to take me down round after round. 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.”

“Anderson Silva is my idol,” Jones continued. “He’s been the guy that I’ve respected the most since I was 19 years old and I got into this sport. And to hear him have that level of faith in me and pretty much tell me that it’s already done, now I just have to go out there and do what I’m capable of, it felt great. It felt great coming from him.”

Cormier, unsurprisingly, didn’t take too kindly to these words.

“It’s good that they’re friends,” Cormier said of Jones and Silva’s chat. “It’s good that Anderson called him with advice. That would almost be like me having Glover Teixeira calling me to tell me how to beat Jon Jones. He lost. It’s much easier to give advice about someone you lost to. He don’t want to see me win. I beat him. He don’t want to see me win. So go get Jon to do the job that he couldn’t do.”

What do you think of Anderson Silva’s comments on Daniel Cormier?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/25/2017.