All this smack talk? Is not normal.
Israel Adesanya has been battling for respect since arriving in the UFC in February of 2018. First people doubted he’d be able to stay on his feet, then they doubted he could still tune people up at the highest level. Then not only did he lack knockout power, but he’d never be able to withstand the knockout power of other 185ers.
After surviving Kelvin Gastelum’s bombs at UFC 236 and basically breaking him in the dying seconds of the fifth round, many of these claims about Adesanya have been put firmly to rest. But there’s always new haters around the corner ready to question everything. For Israel, that new hater is Jon Jones.
Jones started poking at Adesanya over fight week and then grabbed a lot of headlines after Israel’s win by calling him a bitch on Twitter. Adesanya responded as you’d expect from someone who enjoys wearing ‘Good C**t’ sweaters. And while most fight fans probably agree it’s pretty typical smack, aging legend and classy mixed martial artist Anderson Silva is not impressed with what’s going down.
“The way I see it, as an athlete, [Adesanya] disrespected Jon Jones,” Silva told reporters at a UFC media event in Brazil (via MMA Junkie). “I think for the business, for Dana, it’s great. It’s great business for the UFC. Regardless of whether they fight or not, the UFC wins, and the fans. But there is a lack of respect. I think he crossed the line a bit.”
“With time, he’ll learn how to deal with those things,” Silva continued. “I think he has to respect everything Jon Jones has done. It’s two great fighters. In the future, who knows – they might fight. But I’m from a time when you have honor. You respect everyone’s space. And that’s my opinion.”
That’s a fine opinion and all, but it ignores the fact that JONES TOTALLY STARTED IT. Adesanya didn’t even seem particularly interested in firing back until Jones took his non-response as an opportunity to fire off another dig. I’m just saying, Adesanya was completely justified in responding as he did under the laws laid out in section 7c of the Schoolyard Code of Conduct, namely ‘Don’t talk smack if you can’t handle it back.’