Former two-time UFC light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones has given his prediction on how tomorrow night’s UFC 259 headliner between the kingpin of his former division, Jan Blachowicz, and rival, Israel Adesanya will play out — before swiftly deleting his forecast.
Jones, who vacated his light heavyweight championship last year after some negotiation issues with the UFC and his decision to test heavyweight waters after years of speculation, is expected to make his debut at heavyweight this summer, in a projected showdown for the championship against whoever emerges victorious between Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou at UFC 260 later this month.
Last featuring at UFC 247 in February last year, Jones rounded out a dominant period at 205-pounds with a controversial, narrow decision retention against two-time title chaser, Dominick Reyes in Houston, Texas. The successful defence followed another dicey decision victory over tomorrow night’s feature, main card opener, Thiago Santos in July of 2019.
Taking the time since his vacating of the title off in order to embark on a strength and conditioning programe to get his body primed for a move to the heavyweight ranks, Jones recently posted some video footage of him alongside longtime head-coach, Greg Jackson at Jackson-Wink MMA in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Making his prediction for tomorrow’s main event between Blachowicz and Adesanya, Jones claimed the reigning champion would knockback the middleweight kingpin — with a knockout, no less — in a post which was quickly struck out. “Jan (Blachowicz) by KO,” Jones wrote on his official Twitter account. (H/T Chamatkar Sandhu)
Jon Jones is predicting Jan Blachowicz to defeat Israel Adesanya via knockout
#UFC259 pic.twitter.com/BPXRWUyQnB
— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) March 5, 2021
Attempting his first defence of the light heavyweight title, Blachowicz claimed the crown vacated by Jones in the co-main event of UFC 253 in September last, stopping common-foe, the aforenoted, Reyes with a brutal second round knockout.
Headlining that ‘Fight Island’ card, City Kickboxing standout, Adesanya notched his second successful defence of the year, retaining middleweight spoils with a dominant, one-sided high-kick and strikes stoppage of the then-undefeated, Paulo Costa in a grudge-match.