Weidman: Jones And Silva Are GOATS*

Debuting at light heavyweight on October 18th against Dominick Reyes, Chris Weidman has decided to hand the current 205-pound champion Jon Jones the biggest of backhanded compliments.

“If you look at his record and who he’s beat and how he’s done it, yeah, he’s the G.O.A.T.,” Weidman said of Jones.

“But then you put the drug-testing stuff out there … at the end of the day he’s failed multiple drug tests. I think any time you do that, it puts asterisks on your whole career. You have to say that.”

“It’s the same thing with Anderson Silva, he’s failed drug tests too, for performance enhancers,” Weidman said of the man he defeated for the UFC middleweight title.

“I think you have to put a question on the rest of their careers, just like baseball, but this is a way more devastating sport. We’re not just hitting balls over a fence, we’re trying to take each other out. Any time a guy fails a drug test, that’s a serious thing.”

With a win, Weidman feels he should be next up for a title shot against Jones, who was being considered to headline UFC 245 before the welterweight title fight between Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington was set for the December card in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Main card (ESPN2 at 9 p.m. ET)

Dominick Reyes vs. Chris Weidman

Yair Rodriguez vs. Jeremy Stephens

Greg Hardy vs. Ben Sosoli

Joe Lauzon vs. Jonathan Pearce

Maycee Barber vs. Gillian Robertson

Deron Winn vs. Darren Stewart

Undercard (ESPN2 at 6 p.m. ET)

Charles Rosa vs. Manny Bermudez

Molly McCann vs. Diana Belbita

Kyle Bochniak vs. Sean Woodson

Randy Costa vs. Boston Salmon

Court McGee vs. Sean Brady

Brendan Allen vs. Kevin Holland

Daniel Spitz vs. Tanner Boser

Report: MMA Mania