Israel Adesanya owns no real state in Jon Jones’ head, at least according to the UFC light heavyweight champion.
Jones (25-1 MMA, 19-1 UFC), who’s set to defend his belt against Dominick Reyes in February at UFC 247 in Houston, shot down claims of he’s been affected by recent trash talk with Adesany, the UFC middleweight champion. In fact, Jones said it’s quite the opposite and actually enjoys the back-and-forth with “The Last Style Bender.”
“As far as being in my head with the internet stuff, it’s just fun,” Jones said at Friday’s UFC 247 press conference on in Las Vegas. “It’s a lot of fun, the fans enjoy it when we chirp back and forth, and I like to keep people excited. He’s not in my head, he’s not in my head at all. I like the energy he brings to the sport and I like being a part of it.”
Jones and Adesanya have gone at it on Twitter over the last few months, and speculation about a potential fight between the two have grown among fans and media. Jones, 32, said the champ vs. champ fight could actually go down if Adesanya really had intent in fighting him now.
“At the end of the day, if Israel wanted to fight me, that would be a gigantic fight for the sport,” Jones said. “A lot of people are talking about, ‘Well, why are you forcing Israel to go to light heavyweight?’ There’s like a gigantic jump between me and the heavyweights, me an Israel are only 15, 20 pounds apart. So if Israel really wanted to fight me, he would do it. But he’s a (explicit) and there’s really no way around it.”
Jones is one of the most successful champions in UFC history. He’s defended the loght heavyweight belt a total of 10 times in his UFC career. Meanwhile, former interim champ Adesanya recently unified the middleweight title, stopping then champion Robert Whittaker back in October.
Jon Jones not affected by Israel Adesanya's trash talk: ‘He’s not in my head at all’
