Going into UFC 243, Israel Adesanya was going back and forth with both Jon Jones and Paulo Costa. In his post fight press conference, Adesanya stated that he will make the first defence of his new UFC middleweight title against Costa. The new 185lbs champion also repeated himself, when he said that he will fight Jones at the start of 2021 at the new Allegiant Stadium, being built currently in Las Vegas.

In the last few minutes, Jones has taken to social media to respond to his comments, calling out Adesanya for not having the confidence to face him now.

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

Despite the back and forth with Jones and Costa in the lead up to UFC 243, Adesanya put in a clinical performance to dethrone Whittaker in the main event in front of 57,000 fans in attendance, to become the undisputed UFC middleweight champion.

Jones didn’t refer to the fight but perhaps he was impressed enough that he doesn’t want to allow ‘The Last Stylebender’ to have over a year to continue to improve and get stronger. Confidence is one thing you can’t accuse the new middleweight champion of lacking.

Speaking on the ESPN post-fight show, Jones’ former rival Daniel Cormier said that he thought that Adesanya would be too small for ‘Bones’ right now.

How do you think Israel Adesanya would fare against Jon Jones right now? Do you think he needs another year plus, to get bigger and stronger?

See also:

Israel Adesanya Calls Jon Jones “Jealous” And Intimidated

Chris Weidman Talks Fighting Jon Jones, Thinks He Can “Skip The Rankings”

UFC 243 Post Fight Videos