Smith: It was 'noble' of Jones to vacate title

Anthony Smith is pleased that Jon Jones gave up his UFC light heavyweight title.

Jones announced earlier this week he plans to move up to the heavyweight division. Instead of keeping his belt - which he's held on and off since 2011 - to pursue the status of a two-division champion, "Bones" decided to relinquish it.

"I actually need to give him some credit," Smith, a top contender who challenged Jones in 2019, told ESPN's Ariel Helwani. "He could've held on to that title and held the division up."

"That says a lot about where Jon is kind of personally," Smith added. "He's OK right now without being the champion of the world. And every time he failed a drug test, or got in some trouble and had to be stripped, you could tell ... it just eats at him that he isn't the champion. So maybe it's because it's on his terms that he vacated it, but either way, I think it's a fairly noble thing to just give it up and then go about your business and work on your heavyweight run and let everyone else kind of keep moving forward."

Smith, the No. 5-ranked light heavyweight, is scheduled to face Aleksandar Rakic in the main event of UFC Fight Night on Aug. 29 in Las Vegas.