UFC icons Jon Jones and Anderson Silva once had a secret sparring session in Las Vegas a few years ago. And Chael Sonnen has revealed new details on the special moment only a select few saw.
“They’re both in Vegas at the same time, and the UFC had a private gym down below [the Performance Institute]. That’s where Dana [White] would exercise, or Lorenzo [Fertitta] would go get his exercise,” Sonnen revealed to Bloody Elbow. “So they opened up the private gym, they put Anderson in and Jon in the ring together.”
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“If there’s a video, it’s never surfaced. And the only people that were there, Dana and Lorenzo, Anderson, and Jon. Nobody’s ever spoken about that. But I asked Anderson privately. I said, ‘Man, you gotta tell me what happened that day?’ He told me a little and he did swear me to secrecy,” he added. “But, he does say that someday he will reveal what actually happened.”
The former UFC middleweight title challenger’s words do hold weight. He has been involved with the UFC as a fighter or analyst for over 15 years. Furthermore, despite a heated rivalry, he and Silva have become good friends in recent years. The American even served as his opponent in his retirement fight last year.
The Brazilian MMA icon admitted to Sonnen that he could tell how special Jones is in that one sparring session. Yet, he limited the details of what happened. However, according to Sonnen, those who watched the historic moment believe Silva got the better of Jones. But with a caveat.
“He did tell me that Jon Jones was next level. He gave him that compliment,” Sonnen said. “And a lot of people who had seen it, the word kind of came out that Anderson got the better of him, and maybe that Jon allowed him to do that. Maybe Jon respected him because of his age.”
Jones and Silva are universally considered among the top three to five MMA fighters of all time. The former currently holds the UFC heavyweight title and could return later this year to defend it for a second time. Silva retired from combat sports in a special attraction boxing bout in Brazil last year.
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