Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports
Israel Adesanya was quick to launch some memes aimed at Jon Jones after the current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight champion was arrested for Drinking While Intoxicated (DWI) a few weeks ago in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
But despite their bitter feud, Adesanya did show some compassion for “Bones.” For starters, he didn’t release his most hurtful meme’s towards Jones, preferring to keep those to himself. But at the end of the day, “The Last Stylebender” says he felt bad for Jones, who is seemingly throwing it all away.
“He’s a young black man at the top of his game and he’s throwing it all away,” Adesanya said in an interview with ESPN (via MMA Fighting). “A lot of what DC said, same thing. Like, I felt bad for him when I watched the body cam footage as well. At the end, when he was just sobbing, I felt bad for him,” he added.
“Because I can imagine myself in that position. And I even bet you in the back of the squad car, he’s thinking, ‘F*ck, Israel’s gonna have a lot of material with this one.’ I bet you. I swear to God. But, like I said, a lot of it’s never going to see the light of day because it’s funny for me but at the same time I feel sad to see a young, black, skinny [expletive] who wishes he had the career at the beginning like I am right now, and he’s just throwing it all away.”
Adesanya is using Jones as a cautionary tale, and vows not to make the same mistakes as he longtime 205-pound champion. Instead, he jokingly says he will make his own.
“So I’ve taken lessons from watching a guy like him pave the way, if you will, and I won’t repeat the same mistakes. I’ll make my own. Sex tape dropping 2020! Get ready.”
Furthermore, Adesanya says while Jones may have once again avoided jail time with nothing more than probation and house arrest, it won’t all be sunshine and rainbows for the champion.
“Nah, he’s gonna suffer. I feel bad. Put it this way, I wouldn’t want to be in a house with him right now. That’s just all I’ll say. . . I said it in one of my posts about quarantine, like staying strong because a lot of people spend time with their families and realize they don’t like them, and a lot of people fix their relationship with their spouses, with their fathers, with their mothers, whatever, and I just feel like something like that happen in my household would just dampen the whole atmosphere. It just sucks. It sucks to be him.”
Jones has vowed to learn from his most recent brush with the law, which includes addressing his issues with alcohol.