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Reigning heavyweight champ Jon Jones and middleweight champ Israel Adesanya are two of the biggest stars in the UFC today.
In fact, they may very be the two biggest stars in the UFC today, and Jones has an argument as the UFC GOAT.
But this is combat sports, and more specifically the UFC, which means there always has to be some drama.
Adesanya said in 2019 that he would likely to fight Jones after clearing out the middleweight division. Jones didn’t take too kindly to those comments.
The two then exchanged some very NSFW barbs later than year after Adesanya knocked out Robert Whittaker.
Adesanya then escalated the feud in 2020 after Jones was arrested for DWI. But Jones didn’t back down. He later claimed that he would dominate Adesanya should the two ever step in the cage together.
Since that point, Adesanya has lost and then regained his middleweight title, while Jones made the move up from light heavyweight to heavyweight and claimed that championship.
The massive size difference between the two now means we’ll likely never see them fight. Which may be why Adesanya threw cold water on their beef recently.
It began with Jones praising his former nemesis.
“In the UFC, my favorite fighter right now, I hate to admit it, but I would say Israel Adesanya,” he told Sporting News. “Israel Adesanya, him and I are not friends, but he’s probably the most entertaining guy in the organization right now. His whole story with Pereira, that whole saga they had, it was probably the most entertaining thing I’ve seen out of the UFC in a while.”
Adesanya then said on the Impaulsive podcast with Logan Paul that he no longer harbors ill will toward Jones.
“For me, growth is something you have to go through as a human being, as a man especially,” Adesanya said. “Maturity. There was a point where … I came into the UFC and I felt like — it’s up to him to admit this — I felt like he was a fan, but then he was kind of like, ‘Ugh, there’s another coming into this game and taking this shine.’ But there’s enough room for us to shine.”
Something tells us this isn’t the last we’ve heard of this beef. Especially given Adesanya and Jones’ personalities.