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Israel Adesanya’s feud with Jon Jones might be over.
For years, Adesanya and Jones have traded shots with one another in interviews and on social media, with the tantalizing prospect of a superfight always dangling over the public beef. Outside of a loss to rival Alex Pereira that he immediately avenged, Adesanya has long been the man to beat at 185 pounds, while Jones is the undisputed greatest light heavyweight of all-time and currently holds the UFC’s heavyweight title.
However, Jones recently offered some surprising praise of Adesanya in an interview with Sporting News.
“In the UFC, my favorite fighter right now, I hate to admit it, but I would say Israel Adesanya,” Jones said. “Israel Adesanya, him and I are not friends, but he’s probably the most entertaining guy in the organization right now. His whole story with Pereira, that whole saga they had, it was probably the most entertaining thing I’ve seen out of the UFC in a while.”
Adesanya was informed of the comments during an appearance on the Impaulsive podcast, and after initially questioning their veracity and laughing them off, he responded.
“I’ve been a fan of Jon since I saw him at UFC 94, he fought Stephan Bonnar, rest in peace. I saw what he did in that fight. … I was a fan and I think he was as well, but then he mentioned something about ‘I’d like to fight Israel’ and I was like, ‘Why the f*** was this guy wanting to fight me? I’m middleweight,’” Adesanya said.
“Then I responded back and then we had beef. For a few years it was like that, then after I fought [Paulo] Costa it went really deep. That was around the time it could have happened, but I don’t know what happened. Scheduling, COVID reasons, and I fought Jan [Blachowicz]. But yeah, real recognize real, I’ll put it that way.”
Talk of a fight between Adesanya and Jones has cooled over the years, with Adesanya revisiting his rivalry with Pereira and Jones moving up to heavyweight, where he defeated Ciryl Gane for a vacant title at UFC 285. The possibility of an Adesanya vs. Jones fight is remote under the current circumstances, which is just fine for Adesanya at this point of his life.
“For me, growth is something you have to go through as a human being, as a man especially,” Adesanya said. “Maturity. There was a point where … I came into the UFC and I felt like — it’s up to him to admit this — I felt like he was a fan, but then he was kind of like, ‘Ugh, there’s another coming into this game and taking this shine.’ But there’s enough room for us to shine.
“I said this about Henry Cejudo when he was talking s*** about me and I felt like, ‘I’m not even your weight class. You’re a munchkin. You don’t have to hate on me for doing what I’m doing. We can be in our own lanes and be great.’”
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