Jon Jones may be on his way to heavyweight, but UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is still willing to fight him.
For the past several months there has been hype around a potential light heavyweight superfight between Jones and Adesanya. The pair have been taking shots at each other through the media for some time now. However, this week it was announced that Jones would be vacating his light heavyweight title to move up to the heavyweight division, a move that has been several years in the making.
Speaking during a virtual media call recently, “Stylebender” called Jones out for hypocrisy given how much pressure Jones put on him to move up to light heavyweight just after winning the middleweight crown.
“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?”
Now that Adesanya has a few title defenses under him, he feels a lot more confident in taking Jones on sooner rather than later. Even if Jones has moved up to the heavyweight division.
“One hundred percent. It doesn’t change my plans,” Adesanya said. “My plan is still going forward as planned. So, yeah, same thing.”
Of course, Adesanya has a tall task ahead of him first. He will again put his 185-pound title up for grabs this coming September 26 at the UFC 253 pay-per-view (PPV). This time, he’ll be locked inside the Octagon with rival Paulo Costa, an undefeated knockout artist hailing from Brazil. If Adesanya can successfully solve the puzzle that is “Borrachinha,” things will get very interesting.
