Nothing personal! Chuck Liddell has no beef with Jon Jones, but earned the right to voice his opinion

Current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and former division kingpin Chuck Liddell were involved in a war-of-words in the lead-up to UFC 172.

"Bones" was getting ready to defend his title against Glover Teixeira, who just so happens to be Chuck's friend and training partner. After "The Iceman" declared that Glover would knockout or submit "Bones," -- while walking through the champ's punches -- the 205-pound kingpin took exception.

And after also catching wind that Liddell would have knocked him out in his prime, Jones challenged the now-retired fighter to a "super fight." An idea "The Iceman" scoffed at.

So when the two men were forced to mingle side-by-side with fans during a recent tour stop in Manhattan to promote EA Sports UFC video game, you would expect things to get awkward, right?

Not from Chuck's end, as he tells FOX Sports that he has no hard feelings toward Jon and he was simply voicing his opinion on a fight.

His words:

"It's nothing personal. That's my opinion, that's his opinion. Opinions don't change. I'm not going to change my opinion, but it doesn't have to be personal. I don't get personal with guys."

After retiring from active competition in 2010, Liddell took a front office position with UFC as Vice President of Business Development.

Admitting he tries to stray from voicing his opinions on current fighters in an effort to avoid hurting their feelings, "The Iceman" says when he does give his take, he's just being brutally honest and doesn't intend to make it personal.

But if you don't like his opinion about you, he really doesn't care either way.

He explains:

"Guys get mad at me. It's nothing personal. I like you, you're a nice person. It doesn't mean if I say you have a weak punch, I don't like you as a person. It's just my opinion. If you don't like it, I don't care. Actually, I've put my time in. I deserve an opinion. I've got the right to my opinion."

Jones went on to defeat Glover at UFC 172, which went down on April 26, 2014 inside Maryland's Baltimore Arena.

Something that earned the world champ one last opportunity to dig at "The Iceman."