Israel Adesanya has given his verdict on Jon Jones controversial win over Dominick Reyes at UFC 247, and wasn’t impressed by the light heavyweight champion.
Jones successfully defended his UFC light heavyweight title by taking a decision victory over his challenger.
But the outcome has sparked backlash, with many believing that Reyes did enough to strip ‘Bones’ of his belt.
And Israel Adesanya has now offered his own insight into what went down in Houston, and believes the reigning champ struggled to keep up.
Struggling
“I’ve seen him, I’ve seen what I needed to see,” Adesanya told SportingNews.
“In the fifth round, he tried to turn it on, but he couldn’t.”
“Compare his fifth round to my fifth round against Kelvin Gastelum, there’s a difference.”
‘Stylebender’ believes his rival is now past his best, and suggested that Bones isn’t performing at the level he once could.
“He’s washed up, he’s done,” Adesanya continued.
“His best years are behind him.”
“He’s still great, but he’s washed up now.”
“He wasn’t doing s***.”
“He was winning the rounds, but it wasn’t really doing s***, he was trying, but there’s levels to this.”
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‘It Was Close’
Although the two have been feuding for some time, Stylebender surprisingly doesn’t think Jones lost despite his wavering performance.
Instead, the Nigerian-New Zealander believes the fight should have been scored at a draw.
“It was close,” he said.
“There’s ways you can look at that fight,”
“Some people scored it Jones, some people scored it Dominick.”
“Dominick thought he won the fight, Jones thought he won the fight.”
“I would have given it a draw,”
“They put it on the line and it was a good fight, but I give it a draw.”
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‘I’m the Guy’
The rivalry between the two has intensified over the past few months, and Stylebender insists he’ll fight Jones at some point, even if it means moving up to heavyweight.
He must first defend his title against Yoel Romero, and there are a couple more potential obstacles in his path.
But Adesanya says he’ll then happily ‘hunt down’ Jones if he goes up to heavyweight.
“I’m the guy,” he said.
“First, I have to take care of Romero.”
“I have to take care of Paulo Costa and possibly Jared Cannonier, but 2021 — I don’t care if still the champ or not — Raiders Stadium in 2021, I’m going to go up there to 205 and do what I do.”
Meanwhile, Jones has also stated that he’ll likely drop back down, once he’s conquered heavyweight.
With Adesanya vowing to make the move up, and Jones intending to be on his way back down, we could see the pair meet in the middle for a mega-fight.
(Featured image source: YouTube/ ESPN and Instagram/ Jon Jones)