UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones continues to build tension between him and interim middleweight titleholder Israel Adesanya.
Prior to his UFC 236 fight with Kelvin Gastelum, Israel Adesanya started to create some buzz involving Jon Jones. Riding on his win over future Hall-of-Famer Anderson Silva, “The Last Stylebender” went on to tease a possible fight down the line against “Bones.”
“[Jones] is the GOAT right now, right? I’ve already killed one GOAT, I’m hunting the next,” Adesanya said in a recent interview.
These statements eventually got to Jones, who promised to make Adesanya “call him daddy” if they do fight. And even after UFC 236, the reigning light heavyweight champion remains unimpressed.
Well said, my man had a toe to toe kick boxing match with a short stubby wrestler. There’s only one Jon Jones ladies and gentlemen https://t.co/uLl2yo7DZU
— Jon Bones Jones (@JonnyBones) April 14, 2019
Yeah but DC is currently the heavyweight champion and widely consider one of the best to ever play the game. Big difference https://t.co/tz2sXTGZ4U
— Jon Bones Jones (@JonnyBones) April 14, 2019
From his end, Adesanya refused to address Jones on the post-fight press conference, but is keeping the door open for a fight in the future. Apparently, so is UFC president Dana White.
Israel Adesanya when asked about Jon Jones: “This is about me. This is about me and Kelvin. I’ll address that another time.”
— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) April 14, 2019
Dana White: If Adesanya beats Whittaker and becomes middleweight champion, obviously I’d love to see him and Jon Jones fight. #UFC236
— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) April 14, 2019
For now, Jones is booked for his second title defense against Thiago Santos at UFC 239 in July. Adesanya is expected to unify the titles with Robert Whittaker on a future date as well.