Jon Jones may be moving up to heavyweight, but UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is still willing to jump into the Octagon with him.
Jones made the announcement that he is vacating the light heavyweight title that he has held for the past several years, and negotiations are underway to make his Octagon return at heavyweight. In the past, there was chatter that Jones and Adesanya could eventually meet down the road in a light heavyweight superfight. However, with Jones now moving up, those plans began to look a lot more unlikely.
But not for “Stylebender.” Speaking during a virtual media call recently, Adesanya addressed the situation. He first spoke on Jones’ attempts to pressure him into immediately jumping up to light heavyweight to fight him after winning the middleweight title. However, Adesanya wanted to get a few title defenses on his resume before doing so. In fact, the African champ says Jones’ attempts were a bit hypocritical given how long it took him to finally make the move to heavyweight.
“Look how long it took him to move up to heavyweight,” Adesanya said (via MMA Junkie). “Finally. He was expecting me to do it straight away, but I hadn’t defended my belt yet. I’ve defended my belt twice now, I’m going to defend it a few more times and then do what I set out to do. But, yeah, the pot calling the kettle black on his part. Go put some (expletive) muscle on your chopstick legs and go (expletive) fight Francis Ngannou and watch him break you. I hope he doesn’t, though. Maybe he does. Who knows?”
Despite Jones’ jump up in weight, Adesanya’s plans haven’t changed at all. He’s still willing to fight Jones in what would be one of the biggest fights of all time, even if it means doing it at heavyweight.
“One hundred percent. It doesn’t change my plans,” Adesanya said. “My plan is still going forward as planned. So, yeah, same thing.”
Fist, Israel Adesanya will have to get past a grueling challenge in Paulo Costa on September 26. The two heated rivals will finally lock horns in the main event of the UFC 253 pay-per-view (PPV) event.
