Coach: Jon Jones Doesn’t Deserve Israel Adesanya Superfight, Prefers Stipe Miocic
If Israel Adesanya is to have a superfight, his coach Eugene Bareman would prefer for it to be against Stipe Miocic rather than Jon Jones.
Talk of a light heavyweight fight between Adesanya and Jones ramped up following UFC 243 where the former became the undisputed middleweight champion following an impressive knockout of Robert Whittaker. Adesanya, himself, has predicted that the fight eventually happen in 2021 at Raiders Stadium in Las Vegas.
However, Bareman doesn’t feel Jones is deserving of a fight with Adesanya. Instead, he prefers heavyweight champion Miocic, who he feels is a better person:
“We don’t have to give a person of Jon’s nature an opportunity that Israel can bestow on him,” Bareman said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on Monday. “That’s why I suggested that we fight Stipe.
“If we’re going to do a superfight, we’d much rather do it against Stipe. A good dude, a nice guy, a stand-up guy. That’s just how my team operates.”
Of course, Miocic fights two divisions above Adesanya and would undoubtedly have the size advantage. But that’s no issue to Adesanya.
“The Last Stylebender” has also spoken of a potential fight with the heavyweight champion and believes he’d have no problems fighting there, having done so in the past:
“Yeah, definitely,” Adesanya said. “There are certain things we can take advantage of (at heavyweight). And people think I’m gonna have to put on size, but that’s cause they’re dumb, they don’t understand the game.
“I weighed in with full clothes and a box of Dunkin’ Donuts the last time I fought at heavyweight. And so I stayed the same weight, but I still packed a punch. And I even dropped the second guy, flatlined him.”
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