Anthony Smith Says Jon Jones’ Title Shot Is Good For The Division

In an interview with MMA Junkie, Anthony Smith said that while he agrees that Jon Jones’ light heavyweight title shot is unfair, he thinks it will be good for the division. Here are highlights:

On Jon Jones’ title shot: “As far as Jon Jones goes: Like I’ve said 100 times, I’ll never talk about anything Jon Jones does personally because that’s his own life. He wants to mess it up, that’s on him. As unfair as it does seem that Jon Jones is back in a title shot, the title’s back in rotation, and that’s something ‘DC’ wasn’t doing. I said 100 times I never thought ‘DC’ was going to come back to 205.”

On Cormier not returning to 205: “I understand. He’s the double champ, and he wanted to hold onto that as long as he could, and I couldn’t say that I would’ve done any different. I’m just glad that it’s moving again. I just hope that Jon doesn’t beat Gustafsson and then hold the division up again. I just don’t think that Daniel has any intention (of defending). I think that’s what it comes down to. If he had a timeline of like, ‘I’m going to fight Derrick Lewis at this time, and then in March I’m going to defend the 205 title,’ I think he’d still have it. But I think Jon Jones and Gustafsson fighting for it, he has no intention.”