Israel Adesanya has made it clear he’d like to move up to light-heavyweight to fight Jon Jones one day, but one fighter who knows only to well what it’s like to go up against ‘Bones’, Daniel Cormier has reservations about how he would do against him.
“He’s just small,” Cormier said on ESPN’s UFC 243 post-fight show. “He’s just small for Jones. Jones is a big guy, and I think people underestimate how big he is when he grabs you because he’s so big up top. They make fun of how small his legs are, but he’s 225 (pounds). But a lot of the weight is on top, and it’s almost like he hangs on you. It’s like a towel when you’re in the clinch, and I think Izzy may struggle with that because Jones is so big.”
That being said, DC does believe that in purely a striking battle then Adesanya could actually find success against Jones.
“I would not mind watching them fight because if Jones has to stand with this guy, he’s in trouble,” Cormier said. “Jones is very hittable. But Izzy needs to get a lot bigger if he’s going to fight this guy.”
Meanwhile, Jones has played down the notion of the two stars competing in the Octagon due to Adesanya indicating it’ll be over a year before he’s ready to take him on.
“By the time this kid gets his confidence together I’ll probably already be in the heavyweight division,” Jones wrote on Twitter. “I don’t need to wait till 2021 to start believing in myself.”
