Adesanya vs Jones Beef Escalates
All signs point towards newly crowned undisputed middleweight champion Israel Adesanya defending his title against Paulo Costa in March. Nonetheless, Adesanya has still been going back and forth with light heavyweight champion Jon Jones on social media. While fans thought the matchmaking initially was farfetched, it seems more real each passing day. Proclaiming himself as the new king of the UFC, Israel still finds himself throwing shots at Jones.
The ever-lasting beef between Jones and Adesanya furthers every time one of them has an opportunity to speak to the public. Recently, Adesanya was asked about Jon in the media.
Israel declared that he could see himself facing Jon in 2021 and referred to him as the final boss in a video game. Jon heard the message and took it to Twitter to respond to a tweet from Francis Ngannou. The tweet referenced Adesanya’s desire to move up in weight to face Jon.
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
— BONY (@JonnyBones) October 7, 2019
The tweet reads, “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.
Exchanging Jabs on Social Media
As expected, Adesanya saw the tweet and commented as well. However, instead of tweeting, he made his voice heard on the Helwani MMA show. During the interview, Izzy stated that he believes Jon is jealous and is a walking contradiction.
“My confidence? Get my f***ing nuts out of your mouth,” Adesanya said “This guy is trying to force my hand. I’m not stupid. It’s not about me not being confident. I will f**k this motherf***er up when I fight him.”
Israel Speaking to the Media
Furthermore, the conversation continued in the direction of Israel believing that Jon is jealous of him.
“(Jon)He is jealous. He sees the freshman that is f***ing taking all the shine. sees the new dog in the yard. And they are intimidated and jealous and they do not know how to act,” said Adesanya.
“He’s a fan and he’s always been a fan. But, he just tries to do what he does and, just wait (for) your turn. I am not going to be one of these guys who doesn’t defend his belt. I’m going to defend my belt actively. I am not going to be like him and fight twice a year. Let me defend my belt, then I will move up and f**k him up.”
Cultivating the Matchup
The more time that passes, the more it seems like the hatred for them grows. Initially, it seemed like there was mutual admiration. Then, it escalated to a full-on rivalry. On the same note, before Adesanya defeated Whittaker, it seemed like matching the two was unlikely.
Will this all be for nothing? As stated, Adesanya plans to defend his middleweight title and clean out the division. Meanwhile, Jon is bored at 205 with a lack of suitable contenders. So much so, that his last two title defenses were from Middleweights who decided to move up to 205lbs.
Will Adesanya be the next middleweight to move up and fight Jones? Or, will Jon be long gone from the light heavyweight division as Israel makes his ascension?
Time will tell. But hopefully, the newly created rivalry doesn’t fizzle out until a “what if” moment.
