After stopping Whittaker in Melbourne, could Jones be next for Israel Adesanya?
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At UFC 243 in Melbourne, Australia, Israel Adesanya fought and defeated Robert Whittaker via second-round knockout.
This win crowned Adesanya the undisputed middleweight champion of the world. The question now is, who could be next for ‘Stylebender’?
One man who seems like he wants a fight with him sooner than later is the P4P #1, Jon Jones.
“Bones” has been sending out Twitter jabs at Adesanya a lot recently. And Adesanya has also been very vocal about Jones and his recent performances.
UFC President Dana White has also mentioned the possibility of the fight lately. He said prior to Whittaker-Adesanya, that if Adesanya could get through Whittaker, he’d be open to making the fight with Jones. He did just that on Saturday night, and in very impressive fashion. Prior to 243, Whittaker had not been knocked out since 2014 when he fought Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson. In Saturday’s main event, he was knocked out in the second round.
Many fans are looking at it like, Adesanya did to Whittaker in 2 rounds, what Yoel Romero couldn’t do in 10. And when you think of it that way, it gives it a new perspective.
Jones seems as though he is ready for a Champion vs. Champion fight with Adesanya whenever.
On the other hand, Adesanya has said that he thinks the Jones fight won’t happen until 2021. He said that he intends to fight some of the middleweight divisions best, like Paulo Costa, Yoel Romero and Jared Cannonier. Once he’s through with that, then he would move up to LHW and challenge Jones.
The problem with that is it doesn’t seem like Jones is willing to wait. Jones recently tweeted that he believes he’ll be at HW by the time Adesanya is ready to fight. So the timeline for both fighters seems to be a bit off. Their futures in the UFC don’t seem to find them on the same path.
Personally, I don’t think the fight will happen for a bit. Unless some kind of freak injury creates a HW roadblock for Jones, I just don’t see it. I believe he’s right, that by the time Adesanya moves up to LHW, Jones will have already moved up to HW. I suppose they could do some sort of catchweight bout, but that’s uncommon in the UFC.
In the most likely scenario, Adesanya will be defending his middleweight title against #1 contender Paulo Costa. They have both exchanged verbal jabs. After his win at 243, Adesanya was saying something to cage-side Costa. He even threw a DX-esque “Suck It” taunt at the #1 contender. Costa was talking trash to the Champ and even replied later with a “See you soon” tweet.
Down the line, a Jones-Adesanya super fight would definitely be huge and it’s very intriguing. It may not be next up, but I think it does happen in the future.
In the end, the fight is way too big for the UFC not to jump on it.
They will find a way.
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The Scrap’s Kevin Mahoney is a college graduate from Salem State University who loves to write, make music, and watch MMA. Make sure to follow Kevin on Twitter (@MainCardMahoney) and listen to his Lee N Keys Real Talk Podcast every Wednesday on BlogTalkRadio.
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