One of Jon Jones biggest rivals of late has been middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, and the Kiwi star wasn’t impressed with what he saw from the 205lb titleholder on Saturday night against Dominick Reyes.
“I’ve seen him,” Adesanya told Sporting News. “I’ve seen what I needed to see. 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.
“He’s washed up. He’s done. His best years are behind him. He’s still great, but he’s washed up now. He wasn’t doing sh-t. He was winning the rounds, but it wasn’t really doing sh-t. He was trying, but there’s levels to this.”
Nevertheless, Adesanya is sticking to his guns that he’s not going to be ready to move up to light-heavyweight to challenge Jones until next year.
“I’ve seen what I needed to see; I’m the guy. 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 [Jones is] still the champ or not — Raiders Stadium [in Las Vegas] in 2021, I’m going to go up there to 205 and do what I do.”
