There has been a lot of trash talking between Israel Adesanya and Jon Jones in recent months, leading many to believe a fight between the two may materialize shorter, rather than later.
Despite thoughts to the contrary, Adesanya’s coach in Eugene Bareman says it has been Jones who is following in Adesanya’s footsteps.
“The only person that’s ever shown that pension for moving around weight divisions has been Israel,” Bareman told Submission Radio. “And then, of course, Jon Jones, being who he is, has followed in Israel’s footsteps. Which is funny, because he’s meant to be the guy that’s already established himself there, but Israel’s got that guy dancing to the beat of whatever Israel rhythm he puts out.”
Jones recently relinquished the UFC light heavyweight title in order to move up a weight class in the future.
Bareman says that Adesanya is different than Jones in that Adesanya believes it is the skills that win a fight over everything else.
“Look, the two fighters you’re talking about, they have very different mindsets,” Bareman said. “That’s the first thing that’s obvious. Jon Jones hasn’t moved up. He hasn’t done anything about … he hasn’t talked about moving up, and he hasn’t wanted to move up for a decade. Israel approaches the sport very differently to Jon Jones. Israel is a real advocate for supreme martial arts, being extremely good to the point where size and weight doesn’t matter. He believes in that concept. He believes in that theory. He believes that, at the end of the day when all the chips fall, it will be skills that will win over size and strength, something that Jon Jones, he doesn’t have that inside of himself, which is why he’s waited so long to move up. But Israel’s a different case. He wants to go and test out his skills against a much bigger human being because he believes in them.”
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