Israel Adesanya Reveals the Only Condition for the Super Fight with Jon Jones

Israel Adesanya and Jon Jones seem to be on a collision path. The middleweight interim champion, Adesanya is going to face Robert Whittaker to unify the middleweight title in UFC 243 this weekend. However, Adesanya already has a path decided for him after the title win.

Adesanya has already confirmed the time frame and the stadium where he wants to fight Jones. He wants to fight Jones in 2021 or even sooner at Rogers Stadium. However, he is adamant to clean the middleweight division before he moves up to light heavyweight.

In the media scrum before UFC 243, Adesanya revealed the opponents he would like to face before the Jones super fight.
Adesanya said:
“So I probably have another 3 guys. The Juice monkey(Paulo Costa), I like Cannonier, and Romero if he is still around. 3 or 4 at middleweights then I am moving up. I fought four times in one year. So I am gonna keep that same schedule, get those guys out of the way and then move up. “

Paulo Costa is likely the next in line for the title shot with his last victory against former number one contender, Yoel Romero. However, Jared Cannonier has been generating nuclear heat with his performances. Though Romero has lost to Whittaker twice in two close fights, he becomes a worthy contender if Adesanya becomes the champion. So all the three fights make perfect sense for Adesanya and he certainly plans to defend his title against them before fighting Jones.

Adesanya also criticized Jon Jones for not moving up to heavyweight even after beating all the big names in his division for years. Adesanya pointed out that Jones’s last few opponents were middleweight and said:

“I have done it in boxing. I did it in kickboxing in an eight-man tournament. I smoked up all the heavyweights. And I am gonna do it in MMA. I will move up eventually. Thing is you have to clean your division yet. And I have not done that yet. He sort of has. If I was in his position, if I had done that, then I am moving up.”

Things are getting tensed between Israel Adesanya and Jon Jones now. Both of them have been very dismissive to each other’s recent wins and there is a genuine disliking in these two. However, before even discussing the fight with Jones, Adesanya needs to get past arguably the greatest middleweight in UFC history, Robbert Whittaker in UFC 243.