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“People are going to remember you because you’re a drug cheat. You’re a steroid cheat. That’s what they’re going to remember.”
Jon Jones might think his legacy is set in stone, but newly-crowned UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya thinks fight fans will remember ‘Bones’ not for his accomplishments inside the cage but his mishaps outside the cage, specifically Jones’ slew of failed drug tests from 2015-2017.
Jones has been repeatedly stripped of the light heavyweight due to multiple failed drug tests over the course of his UFC career and, although the pound-for-pound No. 1 believes his accomplishments ought to exonerate him of any wrongdoing, Adesanya is adamant Jones will be remembered as a ‘steroid cheat’.
“He’s [Jones] like, ‘well, when I’m done, I’m glad people can remember my accolades rather than my walkout.’ Like shut the f*ck up,” Adesanya said in a recent interview with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani (h/t Abhinav Kini of Low Kick MMA). “People are going to remember you because you’re a drug cheat. You’re a steroid cheat. That’s what they’re going to remember.”
“All the sh*t you’ve done after [beating] Shogun? Nobody really cares anymore because they know you cheated. You popped on the same month as your brother, 2016.”
Adesanya, who believes both he and Jones are destined to fight in 2021, went on to state that his career accomplishments will dwarf Jones’ when all is said and done.
“My walkouts are going to be greater than his whole career,” Adesanya said. “… I’m only just getting started. I’m f*cking nearly two years in the UFC. Imagine what I’m going to do in the next five, six, seven years. He’s already a boomer, he’s old, he’s washed.”
Adesanya is expected to defend his middleweight title against Yoel Romero at UFC 248, while Jones is scheduled to defend his light heavyweight strap against Dominick Reyes in the UFC 247 main event on Feb. 8 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.