Israel Adesanya understands he has some work to do at 185 pounds first, but the UFC’s newly minted, undisputed middleweight champ still has a super-fight with Jon Jones in his sights. In fact, following his big win at UFC 243, it seems like Adesanya’s beef with Jones has never been bigger.
The roots of Adesanya’s and Jones’ issues
Jones and Adesanya started trading verbal shots earlier this year, following the latter’s victory over the legendary Anderson Silva in February. After that win, Adesanya relayed that he would be “hunting” Jones moving forward, in his effort to take out another G.O.A.T. Well, “Bones” didn’t appreciate Adesanaya’s comments, and their rivalry has kicked off from there.
The latest exchange
Well, due to their ongoing issues, talk about Jones and Adesanya fighting continued to make the rounds leading up to UFC 243. Following Adesanya’s stoppage win over Robert Whittaker at UFC 242, buzz about the possibility of the super-fight has only spiked.
But, following UFC 243, Jones tweeted out this:
By the time this kid gets his confidence together I’ll probably already be in the heavyweight division. I don’t need to wait till 2021 to start believing in myself
By the time this kid gets his confidence together I’ll probably already be in the heavyweight division. I don’t need to wait till 2021 to start believing in myself https://t.co/PE16eSVl9i
— Jon Bones Jones (@JonnyBones) October 7, 2019
Well, that got back to Adesanya, as during a follow-up appearance on Ariel Helwani’s “MMA Show“, the vaunted striker had this to say about Jones (quotes via MMA Fighting):
“You saw what I did this weekend?” Adesanya said. “My confidence? Get my f*cking nuts out of your mouth, bruh. . . This guy obviously is trying to force my hand. He’s trying to force my hand and I’m not stupid. It’s not about I’m not confident. Trust me, I will f*ck this motherf*cker up when I fight him. I just have to do what I have to do. I have to defend my belt. I just defended my belt and I am the new unified king. There’s three more killers, four more killers I have to f*ck up at middleweight first. And then, then I will move up in weight, then I’ll jump up and f*ck this guy [up].”
“I can’t wait,” Adesanya said. “I plan everything from the jump. I showed everyone, this is what I am going to do and this is how I am going to do it. And I already said Raiders Stadium, Las Vegas, 2021. And he’s f*cking contradicting himself. ‘Oh I think I’m alright here, I’m not going to move up to heavyweight,’ this and that. ‘Why do I have to move up to heavyweight? I don’t want to fight DC at heavyweight. Now DC is retiring, okay I might move up to heavyweight.’
So, ya. It will be interesting to see what transpires from here. For now, the expectation is that Adesanya will fight Paulo Costa next. But, don’t be surprised if both Adesanya and Jones win their next bout or two, if the UFC looks at tabling that fight before 2021.