Jones Reacts After Adesanya And Reyes Fall At UFC 281

The former light heavyweight champion shared his thoughts on the unfortunate losses suffered by his bitter rivals at Madison Square Garden.

Jon Jones may not be fighting in the UFC until sometime in 2023, but he’s still keeping a close eye on the sport, and those within it who have talked trash at him over the years.

As UFC 281 raged inside Madison Square Garden, “Bones” took to Twitter to share his thoughts on several of the fights, including ones involving Dominick Reyes and Israel Adesanya. Reyes has had something of a one-sided feud with Jones since losing a controversial decision to the then-champ at UFC 247. And to say Adesanya and Jones don’t get along would be an understatement.

“Izzy mentions me in an interview on a monthly basis,” Jones wrote as part of a fiery series of tweets in 2020. “The only time you hear for me is when I respond. It’s no secret that I want to break this clown’s neck. B—h is hiding behind The Internet and his coaches.”

So it was somewhat surprising to see Jones take the high road after Israel Adesanya lost his middleweight title via TKO to Alex Pereira at UFC 281. After a fan poked at him to “troll Izzy already,” Jones replied “Now why would I go and do something like that?”

Instead, Jones congratulated Alex Pereira on his win, writing “It’s already yours Champ, Congratulations! Incredibly happy for you and your team.”

He did take a roundabout shot at Adesanya not being on his level by bringing up a tweet made by Khabib Nurmagomedov prior to Izzy’s loss.

As for Dominick Reyes, who was knocked out badly just 1:20 into his fight with Ryan Spann (watch it here), Jones was more critical.

“‘Get on the sidelines permanently or get in the game,’” Jones wrote. “That was his message to me in one of his last interviews, now that’s my message back to him.”

Asked if he felt bad for Reyes’ quick loss, he replied “I don’t know if feel bad are the words, I would say more like concerned for his health.”

Jon Jones has been toiling away in preparation for a long-awaited heavyweight debut that he hoped would go down on UFC 282 in December. Unfortunately, plans to have him face Francis Ngannou or Stipe Mioicic never came together … and according to UFC president Dana White, Jones vs. Miocic was never even discussed.

“Jon Jones will fight next year, for sure,” he said at the UFC 281 post-fight press conference. “We never had a Stipe-Jon Jones fight.”

With Francis Ngannou still preparing to leave the UFC and Stipe Miocic content to retire if the promotion doesn’t court him properly, it’s a big question who Jones could face later in 2023. Until then, we’ll have to make do with the light heavyweight GOAT’s occasional Twitter splurges.