Long before Conor McGregor ever boxed Floyd Mayweather, Anderson Silva ignited public imagination with talks of a superfight with all-time pugilistic great, Roy Jones Jr. Now, with a second failed USADA drug test hanging over “The Spider,” both he and Jones Jr. appear to be trying to get back the one that got away.

Though Jones Jr. and Silva have been calling for a fight with one another intermittently for ages, the conversation re-emerged this weekend when Jones Jr. went on The Ask Gary Vee Show and said that he is still pursuing a boxing bout with the former UFC middleweight champion.

“I’m still trying to fight Anderson Silva right now. Me and Anderson Silva have been trying to fight way before Floyd Mayweather and McGregor ever thought about this. We’ve been trying to fight for nine years now and they would not let him get free to fight me. . . Me and him could have did this a long time ago and we were at the pinnacle of our careers when we first started talking about it so why they still won’t let us fight right now, I don’t know.”

Silva first called for a boxing match with Jones Jr. all the way back in 2009. At the time, Silva was in the middle of his dominant title run and was seemingly unmotivated by the challengers MMA had to offer him. Jones Jr., while not at his apex, was still having meaningful boxing bouts and the cache of being one of the best and most entertaining boxers of the era. It was a precursor to the McGregor-Mayweather fight but it never materialized, in part because of the UFC’s notorious unwillingness to co-promote things. But with McGregor-Mayweather having broken that ice, Jones Jr. is hopeful that now the UFC will let them do it, especially since he thinks Silva stands a better chance at winning than McGregor did.

“He still wants to fight me and I still want to fight him,” said Jones Jr. “He has 14 professional boxing matches so the different thing about it is, he has boxing experience. So it’s conceivable that he could do it.

“Both of us want to fight right now still and the UFC won’t let him free to fight. I’m 48, going on 49 in January, and because of how big it is, and how big of an event it is, and I know what it means to him, I’m still willing to fight Anderson Silva tomorrow if he was free to do it.”

As for Silva, he is also still interested in the fight, responding to Jones Jr.. on Instagram, saying that it has always been his dream to fight Jones Jr. and that they should make it happen now.

“Ok Roy Jr this is everything I've wanted for years, long before all this happened, it will be a pleasure to step into the ring with you. I have great respect and admiration for everything you've done in boxing and everyone knows that this has always been my great dream. Let's make this event happen. I think we have this right, in fact this is something that both You and I are willing to do. So. Let's make it happen, Mr. Roy.”

Of course, there are certain obstacles standing in the way of this fight aside from the UFC, most notably, Silva’s recent failure of a USADA drug test that forced his removal from the main event of UFC Shanghai. In response, Silva released a statement saying that his team is working with USADA to find out why he failed. Silva was previously suspended one year by the Nevada Athletic Commission for having the steroids drostanolone and androsterone in his system during an in-competition drug test in relation to his fight with Nick Diaz at UFC 183 in January 2015.

But in a second interview over the weekend, Jones Jr. said that he doesn’t care about Silva’s history of drug test failures and that “The Spider” can take all the PEDs he wants when they fight.

“Me and Anderson Silva started this,” Jones Jr. told FightHype. “So me and Anderson Silva are gonna finish this. So if the UFC would go on and let him free - I don’t care about no PEDs. He can have all the PEDs he wants because that’s my man. I don’t believe he’d take PEDs against me, no way, but even if he had a PED show up in his system, I don’t care about that. . . Anderson takes precedence to everybody.”

With Dana White recently saying that the UFC could “one day bring boxing under our umbrella,” perhaps Silva and Jones Jr. will finally get their wishes.

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MUST-READ STORIES

218. UFC 218 was a wild night of fights and here are all of the results.

TUF 26. Nicco Montano crowned the inaugural UFC women’s flyweight champion.

Bellator 189. Julia Budd retained featherweight title with a controversial decision win.

Colitis. Dana White says Georges St-Pierre is “out for a minute” with Colitis.

Problem. Kamaru Usman says Colby Covington is refusing to fight him.

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VIDEO STEW

Post-fight presser highlights.

After this weekend, this seems relevant: Ngannou’s lone MMA loss, in his second fight.

Arguably the best knockout of the weekend happened in Bellator.

Chael making an important point.

Woodley’s TMZ show clip.

Tommy.

Chuck refuting Chael, again.

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LISTEN UP

6th Round TUF. Immediate post-fight reaction to The Ultimate Fighter 26 Finale.

6th Round 218. Immediate post-fight reaction to UFC 218.

Bushido Talk. UFC 218 reaction and discussion.

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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Conor being Conor and Max handling it perfectly.

GSP’s statement.

Respect.

This is great. What a champion.

Happy Warrior.

Diego Sanchez is too good for this sport.

And here’s the video of the fight.

This image got memed all over MMA Twitter yesterday.

Boss Logic’s best work ever.

Can you blame him?

LOL.

Security on point.

Greg Hardy’s second MMA win.

Some more savage finishes from the weekend.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Abdul Razak Alhassan (8-1) vs. Sabah Homasi (11-7); UFC 219, Dec. 30.

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TODAY IN MMA HISTORY

2009: Kimbo Slice made his UFC debut, winning a unanimous decision over Houston Alexander at The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale. Also that evening, Roy Nelson won TUF 10 by knocking out Brendan Schaub.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Wow. What a card. Though the main event was maybe a little underwhelming we still got to see two Fight of the Year contenders and, in my opinion, the frontrunner for Knockout of the Year. I know it’s been a down year in terms of excitement for the UFC but these last two PPVs really brought the thunder. Let’s see if this weekend can do the same.

Take it easy and see y’all tomorrow.

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EXIT POLL

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