For all the ways Israel Adesanya doesn’t care for Jon Jones, the UFC light heavyweight champion has managed to teach him a valuable lesson.
After becoming the youngest fighter to ever capture UFC gold, Jones has gone onto cement himself as one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time. He’s also been arrested for DWI two times, got involved in a hit-and-run accident with a pregnant woman and pled no contest after facing battery charges following an alleged incident at a strip club in Albuquerque, N.M.
The latest incident saw Jones picked up by police in the middle of a lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic where he was seated in his car outside another strip club with liquor in his car along with a firearm in his backseat. Ultimately, Jones was arrested and later reached a plea agreement that allowed him to avoid any jail time.
Still, it was another in a long line of incidents involving Jones that left Adesanya shaking his head. While Adesanya will never claim he’s infallible, Jones has become a cautionary tale when it comes to massive success in his fighting career and colossal shortcomings outside the cage.
“I’ll make my own mistakes,” Adesanya said when speaking to MMA Fighting. “I’ve already made my own mistakes in this game, even in the UFC. I’m just smart about how I make mistakes. He’s not. That’s why he’s an idiot. I’m not going to say I’m perfect. I never have. I’m not going to pretend I’m holier than thou like he does.
“Jon Jones is a Catholic school girl. Those Catholic school girls were suppressed all of their life and then once they get some freedom and they’re away from the church, they become whores. Jon’s a whore.”
On the day of Jones’ latest arrest, Adesanya wasted no time taking shots at him over social media. Despite those jabs, Adesanya can still admit there’s a small part of him that actually felt bad for Jones on some level.
“I flamed him up on Twitter with a few memes, while I was still kind of sad because I am able to empathize as a young black man,” Adesanya said.
“To be in my position of power as UFC champion, which is where he is but he’s been there a lot longer and he’s just f*cking it up over and over and over and over again. It’s just like ‘really [expletive]?’. It’s embarrassing really.”
In the days following the arrest, bodycam footage was released from the Albuquerque Police Department that showed Jones undergoing a series of sobriety tests. He also interacted with one of the arresting officers, who happened to be the same person that stopped Jones back in 2016 on drag racing charges.
“It’s kind of funny,” Adesanya said. “Even in the video, I don’t know what is name is — ‘hello Jack’ or ‘hello John’ whatever his name was. He knows them by a first name basis. That’s hilarious to me. That just shows you the level of the sh*t you guys have seen that comes out but then imagine the stuff that we haven’t seen. The stuff that hasn’t been put out in the media that Jon has done and the cops have been involved and they’ve had to suppress it.
“It just shows you. It’s embarrassing but it’s fun for me to watch because he’s a piece of sh*t.”
Personal feelings aside, Adesanya still sees a future where he will finally settle things with Jones inside the octagon.
Again and again, Adesanya has made it clear that he wants to eradicate the top contenders at middleweight before moving up to 205 pounds but the day will come eventually — he just hopes Jones is still holding onto his belt by that point.
“I think Dominick [Reyes] really showed what I’ve been saying about Jones. He’s washed,” Adesanya said. “I’ve been saying he’s washed but no one was listening. I’ve said it. He’s washed.
“I hope he stays champion. That way I’d be the guy to take out the quote-unquote GOAT. The one everyone keeps talking about. Like I said, I’ve been chopping goat meat for a long time. This will be nothing different.”
Until they finally clash, Adesanya will continue to poke and prod at Jones whenever he’s got a few minutes to spare — and with a global pandemic keeping everybody at home right now, he’s got plenty of time on his hands.
“It’s just fun for me,” Adesanya said. “When I have time like we all have time right now in this quarantine so that’s why I was able to flame him up during it. It’s all fun and games until it’s time to play.”
