Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) president Dana White doesn’t want to get too ahead of things with Jon Jones and Israel Adesanya.
Adesanya captured the interim UFC middleweight title in a thrilling bout against Kelvin Gastelum. “The Last Stylebender” defeated Gastelum via unanimous decision in the co-main event of UFC 236 and is now set for a title unification bout against Robert Whittaker. While Adesanya has business to attend to at 185 pounds, that hasn’t stopped him from engaging in a beef with Jones.
White Discusses Jones vs. Adesanya
Jones took offense to Adesanya saying he killed a GOAT in Anderson Silva and was hunting another. Following UFC 236, Jones said he was unimpressed with Adesanya’s performance in a series of deleted tweets. During the UFC 236 post-fight presser, White said Adesanya’s attention should be on Whittaker (via MMAJunkie.com):
“(Adesanya has) got Whittaker to look forward to now. Whittaker is a bad dude. He’s bigger than Kelvin, he hits harder than Kelvin, and he needs to focus on him right now. I know him and Jon Jones have been talking some smack, and listen, if he wins, and he becomes the middleweight champion, obviously I’d love to see him and Jon Jones fight. But we’ll see how everything plays out and timing. Because the other thing is if Israel fights Whittaker and wins, there’s other guys that have been waiting in line, too, to fight for the title. If (Ronaldo) ‘Jacare’ (Souza) keeps winning and doesn’t get a title fight, that guy might kill me. But that Jon Jones fight is going to be out there for Israel no matter what. That ain’t going anywhere.”
Is it too early to start calling for Jon Jones vs. Israel Adesanya?
