Chris Weidman explains why Jon Jones is less intimidating than Anderson Silva

Chris Weidman has already beaten one legend of the sport in Anderson Silva. If things go as planned in his UFC Boston light heavyweight debut against Dominick Reyes, Weidman hopes to tackle another living legend in Jon Jones.

While Silva and Jones are both considered two of the greatest fighters of all time, Weidman believes prime Silva was far more intimidating in terms of mystique.

“At the time Anderson Silva had such a mystique and an aura about him that was actually greater than Jon Jones,” Weidman said at Wednesday’s UFC Boston media day (via MMA Junkie). “He was dominating everybody, putting his hands down, playing with them. Jon Jones isn’t doing that. He had two tough fights in his last two outings against guys who were middleweights. Two tough guys, but he didn’t look unbeatable in those fights. Anderson Silva, he had the invincibility feel to him when I fought him.”

While Chris Weidman believes Anderson Silva had a more intimidating aura than Jones, he does consider Jones a difficult puzzle to solve.

“As far as skillset, it’s a very interesting puzzle. I think (Jones is) more of an interesting puzzle as far as skillset, but maybe not as much of a puzzle when it comes to mindset and keeping mental focus and not letting the moment get to you and all that.”

“One of the reasons I’m definitely excited to go (to light heavyweight) is there’s a guy there who people think can’t be beat and who people consider to be one of the greatest of all time, if not the greatest of all time,” Weidman added. “That’s what really excited me at middleweight. So to have the opportunity to not just shock the world once, but also twice in my career, and beat two of the guys that people think are the GOATs, that’s the sort of legacy I think I would want to leave behind.”

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This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 10/17/2019.