Michael Bisping Heaps Praise On Israel Adesanya, Talks Jon Jones Matchup
It’s safe to say former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping is a fan of Israel Adesanya.
Adesanya is the current middleweight king and one of the biggest stars in the promotion as of today. Still unbeaten, “The Last Stylebender” is expected to defend his 185-pound title against Paulo Costa next.
However, one fight many fans are intrigued by is a potential Adesanya vs. Jon Jones contest. Both fighters have been regularly trash talking each other over the last 12 months and seem destined to collide in the future.
And Bisping — who was quite the trash talker himself during his fighting days — is a fan of the feud and how Adesanya has been handling it:
“Yeah, well first, Izzy’s outstanding,” Bisping told Submission Radio. “He’s great, undefeated, which is very marketable. He looks good, he talks good, he fights good. The guy’s a superstar. He’s got all the qualities that the UFC are looking for in a superstar, and he fights great.
“Okay, the last fight against Yoel, nobody wants to re-watch that one again, but that’s the way it goes. But listen, you can’t deny it was a sh*tty fight. Doesn’t mean he’s a sh*t fighter, cause he’s not a sh*t fighter, he’s outstanding, he’s the world champion for a reason. But, you know, now and again that’s just stylistically sometimes happens. Yoel’s a serious knockout artist, he has a lot of power and obviously has the wrestling pedigree. So, you’ve got to be careful. And it takes two to tango. So, they were both as bad as each other. It was a sh*tty fight, it is what it is. He got the decision, forget about that, that’s in the past, that’s all history. But no, he’s outstanding, he’s gonna have a bright future. He’s still young.
“And I like what he’s doing with Jon Jones, I like what he’s doing. I don’t know if that fight will ever happen. It probably won’t. Not anytime soon. I think Jon’s talking about going up to heavyweight, so obviously that would put a barrier between them. But I like it. I certainly liked seeing Israel talk sh*t about Jon Jones. It is funny. I just sit there in the morning eating my cornflakes and get a little chuckle out of it. So, yeah, no, he’s great, he’s great. I’m a big fan.”
While Adesanya might have the edge in the trash-talking and social media department, many believe he would eventually lose to Jones given the difference in size and wrestling ability.
However, “The Count” believes the pair match up well on the feet and given Jones’ last few performances, Adesanya certainly has a chance. But at heavyweight, Bisping remains less confident.
“Listen, on the feet they’d match up pretty well,” he added. “I can’t see why Israel wouldn’t have at least an equal footing or potentially an advantage. Jones isn’t… I mean, we saw in his last few fights he’s not invincible, he’s not superhuman, he is beatable. Everybody’s beatable, trust me. And Jon, the longer he does it, the longer he goes, it’s kind of a game of odds. At some point someone’s going to beat him, and it seems to be happening more and more. I mean, the fight against Dominick Reyes – and I’m not trying to dump on Jon Jones, but I feel that Reyes won that fight. The one before, Thiago Santos, that was a close fight, and Thiago Santos had a bloody blown ACL from round one. The fight before that, Anthony Smith.
“So, you know, Jon isn’t unbeatable, and Adesanya is also undefeated. They’re both pretty undefeated in my eyes. It’s a great fight. I’d love to see it one day, but I’m not sure I would ever see Israel at heavyweight. That’s why I kind of laughed there, cause he’s certainly very tall, but he’s a light middleweight at the end of the day. So, at heavyweight, he’s gonna have a big disadvantage there.”
Do you agree with Bisping?
