Jon Jones And Israel Adesanya Go At It
It all appeared to start off as a respectful bit of fun. Jon Jones and Israel Adesanya both hinting that their paths will cross down the road. But how quick things escalate in the MMA world. Fast forward a couple of weeks and we have a full on war of words.
The turning point appeared to be when Adesanya said that he had already killed one GOAT (the greatest of all time) and that he’s hunting for the next. This provoked Jones into ‘attack mode’. You can read more about their previous back and forth here, here and here.
On Monday, the war of words between the two, were turned up a notch. Talking to Ariel Helwani and Luke Thomas, Adesanya had some harsh words for Jones. Speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show, ‘The Last Stylebender’ compared Jones to a bully.
“Jon Jones, he literally just reminds me of what I’ve hated most in life, and that’s bullies. I’ve had them through high school, coming up. Literally he’s a jock, he’s a cock, and he’s a c***. He’s picking the right time. He’s a smart boy. He knows I’m a challenge. Jon Jones likes to look for challenges because there’s a reason. He’s started all this. He’s the one that came out openly and called me out and said, ‘I’d like to fight Israel Adesanya.’
“He knows I’m a threat. But guess what, I’ve said this for so long: If you want to beat me, do it yesterday. Every f***ing fight I get better. I get better every fight. So if he wants to try to take me out early on when he knows I’m only a year in the UFC and I’m still learning.
And speaking on The MMA Hour, Adesanya continued to go at Jones.
“He’s a c***. First of all, there’s two variables I never expected in this game. The first was to fight [Anderson] Silva and now to fight Jon Jones. I have to adapt to that. So, he’s a c*** and I say that because he’s picking the time when I’m supposed to get the most shine to come at me because he’s irrelevant. No one really cares about him. I’m everything he wished he was, I’m everything he wished he would have been. Like ‘Ooooh, I want to thank God’ and meanwhile he’s in the back (insinuates snorting cocaine) and the hiding under a cage to avoid USADA.”
“‘Jacare’ [Souza], Yoel [Romero], [Chris] Weidman, [Jared] Cannonier, these are guys still in line. So, chill motherf***er Jones. Let me get through the middleweights first and at least defend my belt a few times. I want to get through all of the top middleweights at least once and then I’ll move up. But, he’s trying to jump the gun, he knows I’m a challenge because honestly, he’d have a better chance of beating me right now than a year or two years from now. He knows that. He’s a smart man and his coaches are smart. So, I don’t know if it’s all on him or someone is pushing him to ‘Get him now. Get him now while he’s still green.’ I’ve been bulled my whole life. So, when I peak, he’s going to get this.
As you can imagine, these comments didn’t sit well with Jones, who took to Twitter to respond. Which obviously led to more responses from Adesanya.
Following his incredible win over Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 236, Adesanya will now fight Robert Whittaker, to unify the UFC middleweight title. UFC President Dana White, has stated that this will go down around September in Australia, probably in a stadium.
Jones is set to defend his UFC light heavyweight title against Thiago Santos on July 6th in Las Vegas, at UFC 239.
Being the lighter and less experienced guy, there’s no doubt that Adesanya needs a little more time before he challenges Jones but when do you think he’ll be ready to face him inside the Octagon?
See also: