Adesanya plans title defence, Jones not his next target

Israel Adesanya wants to square up against UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, but won’t fight him until he’s ready.

This is coming a few weeks after his victory over Robert Whittaker, whom he knocked out in the second-round to unify the UFC middleweight title. While Nigerian-New Zealander’s professional mixed martial artist is still enjoying his victory with a tour, he is now looking ahead toward his next fight.

Multi-time title contender Yoel Romero is targeted as his next opponent in early 2020. Middleweights artists, Paulo Costa and Jared Cannonier, are being talked about as well.

Meanwhile, indications have shown that Jones is not on the list of his next target because Adesanya wants to clear out the middleweight division first before aiming for a second UFC title.

While noting that he just defended his middleweight title he won in April against Whittaker in October’ The Style Bender’ in an interview with MMA Fighting says he is ready to defend his belt against all the middleweights that are the most significant threats. He, therefore, added that if Jones wants him now, he has to come down to middleweight.

Despite all the trash talks we have witnessed between the two great artists recently, Adesanya is not ready to settle a grudge with Jones before he prepares for competition at 205 pounds.

It’s not easy to make an adjustment to fight in 205 pounds. Adesanya is honest with himself here. On the other hand, ‘The Style Bender’ believes Jones that he has a competitive edge, being the reason he wants the fight right now.

The Nigerian born martial artist likened his situation to that of money man, Floyd Mayweather, and Mexican boxer ‘Canelo’ [Saul Alvarez].

He added that Mayweather defeated Alvarez while he was still coming up and caught him early.

“So he’s trying that with me. Because he knows every f*cking time, I’m getting better and better and better, and he’s not. His time will come,” he added.

Ahead of his potential clash with Jones, Adesanya is expected in a short while to have a shot at the 205-pound fight as he plans to run through all the top contenders at middleweight. If he records success here, the coast will be cleared for the Nigerian champion to move up the ladder.

Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed.