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“I don’t need him. Actually, I’ll say he needs me if he wants to stay relevant.”
Israel Adesanya is planning to etch his name into the history books as one of the greatest fighters of all time, with or without Jon Jones.
The UFC middleweight champion doesn’t believe he needs a win over ‘Jones’ to cement his legacy but claims ‘Bones’ needs to fight him if the reigning light heavyweight champ wants to stay relevant.
“I don’t need him. Actually, I’ll say he needs me if he wants to stay relevant,” Adesanya said in a recent interview with ESPN (h/t MMA Junkie). “Because he’s already done a lot in his legacy which is tainted by other things he’s done outside the ring but, for right now to stay relevant, to stay current, he needs me.
“He can keep trying, but he’s got someone else to worry about right now this weekend with Dominick Reyes, so he better focus on that rather than focusing on me.”
Adesanya recently stated that he is willing to hunt Jones down if the pound-for-pound No. 1 moves up to heavyweight but, before that, ‘The Last Stylebender’ wants to get a few title defenses under his belt to prove his worth as champion.
“I could have done my next fight (vs.) Jones if I wanted to, but this division has been held up for so long because the former champion (Robert Whittaker) was pulling out of fights, was sick, and was holding up the division. So for me, I have to do right like the greats.
“Like Anderson Silva who defended 12 times, the greats like him. I want to do right by the division and defend my belt, so I’m saying if you want to come down and see me, come see me, but let me get my job done first. I’ve got (Paulo) Costa, (Jared) Cannonier, Darren Till is a fresh new name.
“If Kelvin (Gastelum) can re-up and get back on the chopping block, he can get it, but there’s a few other guys that I want to get to – not have to, I want to get to. I want to defend my belt a few more times before I step up and fight someone like Jon Jones.”
Adesanya will defend his middleweight title next month (Sat. March 7, 2020) against Yoel Romero at UFC 248, while Jones is set to defend his light heavyweight strap against Dominick Reyes in the UFC 247 main event, The highly anticipated pay-per-view takes place this Saturday, Feb. 8 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.