Israel Adesanya is certain that one day there will have to be a fight between him and Jon Jones, even if he is not fighting the best version of “Bones”.
Depending on how you see it, the road to a superfight between the two UFC stars is either stalled or clearer than ever after UFC President Dana White announced that the promotion is aimed at Adesanya – the current one Middleweight Champion – Division takes a step up to challenge light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz.
In theory, an Adesanya win would trigger a match with Jones, who has won three light heavyweight titles and is widely regarded as the best to ever start at £ 205. Jones recently announced his plan to move up to the heavyweight division, which means it is unclear when or if he will fall behind over a hypothetical matchup with Adesanya.
Adesanya has said in the past that he is ready to pursue Jones all the way to the heavyweight division, especially if it means potentially becoming the first three-part UFC champion. Should Jones fail in his own mission to conquer heavyweight gold, The Last Stylebender is open to fight him at any weight, especially given the poor view he has of Jones’s recent accomplishments.
“I’m about to do what he hasn’t done in over 10 years, which is gaining weight,” Adesanya told ESPN. “I didn’t recycle and scrap all of my old adversaries or find new sub-types to fight. I just said damn I am a climb.
“So I’ll do what he hasn’t done in over 10 years, I’ll do it in just under three years. I don’t know, it depends who his next fight is but I saw the guy live. You can check out his last five fights. Tell me it hasn’t washed. “
Jones is essentially undefeated in his career, his only loss being disqualification. These include his last three title defenses against Dominick Reyes, Thiago Santos and Anthony Smith, all of which went over the distance. Reyes and Santos’ rulings sparked a lively debate among fans and the media. Some speculated that Jones didn’t do enough to win these fights. Jones’ win over Smith was criticized for lack of action, despite the one-sided results in his favor.
Regardless, before Jones gave up his UFC title last August, he was on a number of successful defenses and even if he suffers a heavyweight loss, Adesanya doesn’t expect the matchup to lose much of its glamor.
“For fan attraction, maybe,” said Adesanya. “But then I’m the goddamn light heavyweight champion and the story is, he got promoted to heavyweight, he comes back to light heavyweight to claim what’s his and there’s this troll who last fucked him a year and a half and told him he won’t do it after starting it. And then yes, yes.
“So that it doesn’t lose its shine for me. I hold onto my guns and I have work to do and I’ll get my job done so it doesn’t lose its shine. It will just be a beautiful story of a fallen king trying to come back to regain his throne. A new dog in the yard came in and then pissed all over the place. “
Adesanya and Jones have fired many shots at each other in the past few months, with the insults becoming deeply personal and at one point verbal bumps into each other’s family members. According to Adesanya, this beef didn’t come out of nowhere, and it is actually Jones who started it after Adesanya’s interim win at UFC 236 last April.
“Jon Jones, look at every fight Jon Jones has had in the past year and a half,” Adesanya said. “I don’t say anything if I’m not asked. But every time I fight he says something stupid that tries to poke. It happened from the fight in Atlanta, 236, since then in every fight I have had, he always had something to say and like. I don’t know if he’s stealing the limelight, but if you will, break off some of my shine.
“I can’t understand why he’s jealous of me because he shouldn’t be jealous of me, but he is. I can tell you this because it’s easy to tell when you’ve been there, when you were that green eyed monster, it’s easy to tell when you see it in other people. I see it and he’s jealous of me for doing exactly what he asked for. … It is definitely a powerful trout. He is a trout hitting power. One hundred percent. King Fish Clout Trout, Bar No, 400-pound Clout Trout. “
Adesanya didn’t just notice his rival’s social media tendencies in his beef with Jones. When lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov announced his retirement from UFC 254 and turned away from the competition with a flawless 29-0 record, Jones tweeted that he was ready to “grant” Nurmagomedov his place.
Until I take this heavy crown I’ll give you the place. Enjoy champ
– BONY (@JonnyBones) October 24, 2020
In the days following that tweet, Jones would make it clear that his résumé was still stronger than Nurmagomedov’s.
Adesanya found Jones’ attitude to the situation ridiculous.
“He tweeted something, I saw it come up, ‘It’s okay Khabib, I’m giving up my GOAT title,'” Adesanya said. “What the hell is a GOAT title? There’s nothing like that to fuck, it’s stupid, it’s made up, it doesn’t exist. What did he say: “I’ll give you my GOAT title” and when he gets sober or whatever, he says: “Oh people, no, actually I’m the GOAT.” I worked hard. ‘
“It’s so stupid because people want to react, they don’t take the time to answer. I beg people in life, not just in struggle, in life, just don’t answer. … There are times to react, but a lot of people react too quickly. I don’t know how to convey this better, but I’ll just say it again: don’t react, just answer. It will pay you dividends in life, I promise you. “
Check out Adesanya’s full interview with ESPN:
