Israel Adesanya plans on following Jon Jones to heavyweight
Some rivalries seem destined to be settled inside the cage. That seems to be the case regarding UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
Earlier this week Jones officially vacated his title, setting the stage for Dominick Reyes and Jan Blachowicz to battle it out for the vacant championship belt. The long-term plan seems to be for Jones to move to heavyweight for new endeavours. One would think that this spelled doom for a potential superfight between Jones and Adesanya, who have been openly feuding for several months, more or less since the latter became champion.
However Adesanya claims that Jones moving to heavyweight doesn’t mean their paths wont cross in the near future.
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“Look how long it took him to move up to heavyweight,” Adesanya told media during a UFC 253 media call. “Finally. He was expecting me to do it straight away, but I hadn’t defended my belt yet. I’ve defended my belt twice now, I’m going to defend it a few more times and then do what I set out to do. But, yeah, the pot calling the kettle black on his part. Go put some (expletive) muscle on your chopstick legs and go (expletive) fight Francis Ngannou and watch him break you. I hope he doesn’t, though. Maybe he does. Who knows?”
“One hundred percent. It doesn’t change my plans,” Adesanya said. “My plan is still going forward as planned. So, yeah, same thing.”
Adesanya is scheduled to make his second title defence against undefeated knockout artist Paulo Costa at UFC 253 on September 26th. Jones’ next opponent is not confirmed, but his heavyweight debut is expected to take place against either heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic or Francis Ngannou.
