Israel Adesanya teases of a championship bout with Jon Jones.
It’s been just over twelve months since Israel Adesanya made his UFC debut and the former kickboxing champion is already being primed for a super fight with UFC light heavyweight champion and former pound-for-pound No. 1 Jon Jones.
Jones who, despite numerous failed drug tests is still considered one of the greatest fighters of all time, ‘has a feeling’ he will eventually fight Adesanya, and, speaking to TMZ Sports in a recent interview, ‘The Last Stylebender’ teased of the match-up by saying ‘great minds thinks alike.’
“He was right and when I heard about it – I think maybe two days after he said it – I was like, ‘Oh, really?’” Adesanya said, per MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew. “I had receipts. I had some screenshots from prior and then I posted them to show that I was already on that same plane. So yeah, great minds think alike.”
Adesanya recently beat middleweight ‘goat’ Anderson Silva at UFC 234 and the New Zealand-based fighter says he is already ‘hunting the next,’ hinting at a fight with Jones.
With that said, Adesanya will not be overlooking Ultimate Fighter 17 winner Kelvin Gastelum, who he fights for the interim middleweight title in tomorrow evening’s UFC 236 co-main event.
“Focus on this weekend,” Adesanya said. “That’s way down the line. I’ve still got to run through all these middleweights first. So we’ll focus on that later on. That’s just a little teaser. Later on we’ll talk about that.”
“I’m looking forward to the fight itself, fighting against a warrior like Gastelum. He presents some good challenges. Certain things he does really well. Only a few things, but I have a lot of things I do very, very well. He’s durable so I just have to do what I do and slow cook him. Don’t rush, take my time. I want to touch him as much as possible and anyone I touch on any level – head, legs, body – they can’t handle it. So eventually, within five rounds, he will fall.”
UFC 236, which features a headlining interim lightweight title bout between Dustin Poirier and Max Holloway, takes place this Saturday, April 13 at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.