Coach: Adesanya has ‘heart set’ on Jones fight no matter the weight

Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC

Israel Adesanya’s coach Eugene Bareman has said regardless of what weight Jon Jones fights at next, Adesanya still wants to fight him. Israel Adesanya’s head coach Eugene Bareman has said regardless of what …

UFC 253 Adesanya v Costa

Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC

Israel Adesanya’s coach Eugene Bareman has said regardless of what weight Jon Jones fights at next, Adesanya still wants to fight him.

Israel Adesanya’s head coach Eugene Bareman has said regardless of what weight it takes place at, his fighter is serious about fighting Jon Jones.

Adesanya and Jones have been going back and forth ever since “The Last Stylebender” outlined his plans to move up to light heavyweight after cleaning out the middleweight division.

Talking recently to Submission Radio, Bareman couldn’t understand why Jones has been vocal on social media about fighting Adesanya.

I don’t know Jon Jones from a bar of soap, to be honest,” Bareman said. “There could be a side of him that just is insanely jealous that this new guy has come into the scene and is stealing a little bit of what he perceives as his thunder. That could be the fact that he’s just a really great businessman and he knows how to build fights and he knows how to make money and he’s aiming at long money, so it’s not necessarily a fight that’s in front of him now, he’s building a nest egg for him in a couple of years.”

Adesanya recently defended his UFC middleweight title against Paulo Costa at UFC 253 in September. The win was Adesanya’s second defense of his title. Bareman continued by saying regardless of what weight Jon Jones fights at next, the fight with Adesanya will happen.

“It could be just that he’s a d— and that’s just his personality and that’s just the way he is,” Bareman said. “Honestly, it’s all speculation. But with Israel as set upon doing that fight, as long as he has the blessing of his team, his group of coaches, including me, he has got his heart set on doing that fight. It doesn’t matter where Jon Jones goes. If he goes to heavyweight, goes to light heavyweight, goes up and loses two fights, three fights, wins the next three fights, Israel has his heart set on that fight. So yeah, that fight’s gonna happen, I’m just not sure when.”

Jones caught on to Bareman’s comments and responded on Twitter by labelling them as “straight hoe sh—.”