Jon Jones Wants Superfights, but Anderson Silva Bout off the Table

Jon Jones is two title defenses away from entertaining superfights.

Outside of a close call with Alexander Gustafsson, the reigning UFC light heavyweight champ has sat on his throne for over three years, looking virtually untouchable against the world’s best contenders.

There has been talk in the past of Jones moving up and competing at heavyweight after clearing out the long list of contenders in the 205-pound division. If not heavyweight, some wondered about the possibility of Jones defending his title against UFC middleweight champ Chris Weidman or former middleweight champ Anderson Silva.

Just the mere idea of fresh, challenging fights for the future light heavyweight Hall of Famer has piqued the interest of MMA fans all over the world.

As for Jones, he is open to just about any superfight the UFC throws his way, as long as it isn’t against Silva, as he conveyed at Monday’s UFC media day, per MMAFighting.com:

"

I would never want to fight Anderson. Never. Ever.

I just look up to him so much. And he’s just...I don’t have many people that I’ve looked up to in my lifetime and think, 'wow, how cool would it be to be that guy.' Look at what he’s done. Jordan, LeBron, Anderson, Kobe, I consider them all in the same type of class. The Jeters. Athletes of that caliber don’t come around that often. I don’t want to be the guy to beat him. Even though that’s happened already, I wouldn’t want to lose to him and I don’t want to beat him.

"

Silva is believed by many to be the greatest fighter in MMA history. Even when Silva was champ, Jones’ stance toward fighting him remained relatively the same.

Neither fighter has really shown much interest in fighting one another. During a media luncheon leading up to his first fight with Weidman, according to MMAFighting.com, Silva told the media that he didn’t believe he would be able to overcome Jones’ youth and size in a fight.

In any case, the current itinerary is fairly straightforward for Jones.

On January 3, he is scheduled to defend his title against former heavyweight contender Daniel Cormier. If he gets past DC, he will likely face the winner of the January 24 No. 1 contender’s bout between Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony Johnson.

A win over Gustafsson or Johnson could signify the clearing of a division, which would finally open up the opportunity for Jones to entertain blockbuster fights at heavyweight.

"[After] those two fights, I would consider the division clear, and that’s when I would start to entertain superfights," said Jones. "…I've been training with heavyweights for years now. I know what it feels like, and I think I would do really good against them. So that would be the next chapter."

Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.