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UFC Middleweight Champ Says ‘I’m Not Leaving the Sport — Chris Weidman News

Whether you like it or not, superfights are a constant talking point in the current mixed martial arts landscape.

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Weidman seems bent on moving up to the UFC light heavyweight division to face off against “Bone” Jones, although all that may have to wait.

A dream match between then UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture and the elusive Russian legend Fedor Emelianenko was considered a fight with generational implications.

Luke Rockhold is rarely at a loss for words, so it shouldn’t come as a shock that he had a quick response to UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman’s statements about him on The MMA Hour this week.

“I know for a fact, I’m not leaving this sport without fighting Jon [Jones]”. “Unless he’s not coming back at all”.

Jones is still now mired in a legal conundrum stemming from his hit and run incident earlier this year, that led to him being stripped of his title and suspended indefinitely by the UFC.

Silva was previously considered the greatest fighter in the history of the sport before the emergence of Jones.

Except for a technicality DQ against Matt Hamill, Jones’ record is essentially untainted in 22 fights. But if he’s there, and I’m here, people are going to want to see it happen.

“The good thing is that [Rockhold] has no idea what I’m bringing to the table for this fight”.

He sees Jones as among the biggest challenges and that he wanted to conquer him. He’s been in there and he’s fought some tough guys, I’ll give him that. I want the biggest challenges. You saw how I dealt with Machida and how he struggled with him in five-round fight, and nearly got beat multiple times. “And Jon is definitely going to be one of those guys”.

Fighting – and beating – someone who is the most talented fighter we’ve ever seen isn’t anything new to the UFC middleweight champ, as he was the first person in the UFC to defeat Anderson Silva, who – other than his two fights with Chael Sonnen – looked virtually unstoppable up to that point.

Aside from putting the title on the line, Weidman will also risk his clean slate of 13-0 against Rockhold. He has beaten some of the best fighters in the sport, including Silva twice.

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Luke Rockhold isn’t sure why UFC 194 opponent Chris Weidman thinks he might be insecure, but he does believe he has one major advantage over the champ – his team.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports