Even Israel Adesanya couldn’t help but give Jon Jones props for his latest UFC title win.
Jones needed just two minutes to capture the vacant UFC heavyweight title with a guillotine choke submission of Ciryl Gane at UFC 285. It was one of the most impressive wins of Jones’ record-breaking career, both for the dominance of his victory and the fact that it came in his heavyweight debut after a three-year layoff. And in a live reaction video posted to his YouTube channel, Adesanya was just as blown away as the rest of the MMA world.
“Oh, what the f***?!” Adesanya said watching the finish in real-time. “Yo, what did he do? That was so subtle. He might have just used his chest on him or something. Wow.
“I wanted more, but f*** — that’s impressive. That’s impressive.”
Adesanya and Jones have a history, obviously. The two veterans have been at odds for the majority of Adesanya’s UFC career, often sniping at one another from afar through interviews and social media. Jones even publicly backed Alex Pereira ahead of UFC 281 prior to Pereira’s fifth-round knockout of Adesanya to capture the UFC middleweight belt.
Jones repeated that pick recently at UFC 285 media day when asked for his thoughts on the upcoming Pereira vs. Adesanya rematch on April 8 at UFC 287.
“I believe Pereira is going to win again,” Jones said. “There are some athletes that just have other athletes’ number. I see he works hard and I’m rooting for him. I believe he’s going to do it again.”
Even still, Adesanya was happy to give credit where credit was due after watching Jones become only third fighter in history to win UFC titles at 205 pounds and heavyweight.
“I did say if Gane got it done, it would be f****** shocking,” Adesanya said. “But that, the way [Jones] did it? Easily? That was shocking.”
Watch Adesanya’s complete reaction to UFC 285 above.
