Israel Adesanya Doubles Down On 2021 Showdown With Jon Jones
UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya maintains he will fight with ““Jon Jones — but only in 2021 as he previously forecasted.
Jones and Adesanya have been going back-and-forth for a while and it’s only intensified following the latter’s middleweight title win over Robert Whittaker last month. For Adesanya, he wants to clean out his division first before moving up to light heavyweight and facing Jones.
But if “Bones” wants to fight him that bad, he’s willing to face him — but only at 185:
“Jon Jones? Nah,” Adesanya said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show when asked if that could be his next opponent. “See, this is my new belt, 185. I’m the champ at that weight class. I need to clean out my division.
“If he wants to fight me right now, come see me at 185. I’ll let him jump the queue. Because he’s the champ at that weight class, I’ll let him jump the queue. But let me do my work. I already said 2021.”
Adesanya believes Jones wants the fight now as opposed to later because that would be his best chance at beating “The Last Stylebender” before he hit his prime. He also referenced how Floyd Mayweather did the same thing to Canelo Alvarez back in 2013:
“He’s a smart man,” Adesanya added. “You see Canelo now, what he did to Kovalev? People are like ‘oh he’s the new pound-for-pound’. I’m like ya’ll must have forgot, you remember the Mayweather fight? Mayweather did what Jon Jones was trying to do to me which is show his hands early. Fight him when he’s still young, still fresh.
“His coaches see the growth. They see me fight after fight after fight because I’m fighting so often. They’re like ‘man, this guy is getting better every time. If we’re going to beat him, we got to beat him yesterday. Day before yesterday because every time he’s getting better.’ They’re smart but I’m saying, hey, if you want to see me, come see me.”
What do you make of Adesanya’s comments?
