Weighing in on the future of UFC 309 headliner, Jon Jones, ex-champion, Israel Adesanya has urged fight fans how the heavyweight champion owes them nothing – especially fights with either Tom Aspinall or Francis Ngannou in the future.
Jones, the current heavyweight champion and a former two-time light heavyweight kingpin, makes his first Octagon walk since March of last year this weekend, in the main event of UFC 309 against the returning, Stipe Miocic.
Rebooking a title defense against the Ohio native at Madison Square Garden, Jones was scheduled to fight the former champion last year, however, a pectoral tendon tear in the weeks ahead of the pairing shelved the bout.
And making his first outing since winning vacant heavyweight spoils, Jones most recently made his divisional debut in dramatic fashion – laying waste to former interim champion, Ciryl Gane, finishing the Frenchman with a stunning guillotine choke submission win.
This week, Rochester native, Jones sent fans and media members alike into raptures, claiming he had no interest in fighting Aspinall in a title unification bout after UFC 309 – claiming he woul prefer matchups with the likes fo Alex Pereira, Jamahal Hill, or even veteran contender, Derrick Lewis.
Israel Adesanya defends Jon Jones ahead of UFC 309
And sharing his thoughts on Jones’ comments and stance on his fighting future, former two-time middleweight gold holder, Adesanya has insisted the former pound-for-pound realistically owes nothing to fans in terms of missed fights.
“I wanted to see—I still want to see—the Tom Aspinall vs. Jon Jones fight. I still want to see the Francis Ngannou vs. Jon Jones fight,” Israel Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “There are all these other fights, but again, this thing is… when you’re in this game so long at the highest level, you get burnt out. But again, he’s had time off because of things outside the Octagon, which helped. But that’s another load of stress you have to deal with in your own life, so you get burnt out.”
“At some point, who knows—he might just want to go live his life and do other things. But again, you’re right, the risk versus the reward… he has to make that call on his terms. And if he beats Stipe and walks away, he broke up with fighting; fighting didn’t break up with him.”
“And also, if Stipe beats Jon Jones and then retires, they’re gonna have to pay him like… 20 million to come back, and then give Jon a chance to avenge that one. This is chess in the fight, but outside the fight, the plays they make are gonna be chess moves as well. I think he was 21 when he made his debut. That’s 16+ years in the game—classic. He’s given enough. I mean, he doesn’t owe the game anything, doesn’t owe the game, you know, anything more fight-wise.”