Many believe it is just a matter of time before Jon Jones and Israel Adesanya meet in the Octagon and Mike Winkeljohn, who is Jones’ coach, wants the potential bout to happen at heavyweight.
Winkeljohn says that Jones shouldn’t be chasing Adesanya and that Adesanya should fight Jones at heavyweight.
“My first thought is heavyweight,” Winkeljohn said to Submission Radio (via Jed Meshew of MMA Fighting). “Have Israel come up to heavyweight. Here’s the deal, Jon Jones has always fought a who’s who, and it’s always been this guy, you have to go beat this guy to secure your legacy. And then he beats him. And then it’s, okay, you have to beat this guy to secure your legacy. And then he beats him. Jon doesn’t need to chase anybody, they need to chase him. That’s the way I look at it. That’s why he’s the best (So), probably heavyweight. Jon’s current mindset is to get to heavyweight. That makes sense. Once he puts all that mass on, there’s no reason to come back down. What’s the purpose of that? Go back down to chase Izzy? Absolutely not. Jon’s the man, that’s why he’s the greatest, and people need to chase him, and he’s a leader, he’s the leader of the sport.”
Neither Jones or Adesanya have fought at heavyweight before, but Jones is expected to debut in that division in the future.
The coach also believes that Jones can defeat Adesanya if the two engage is a slugfest in the Octagon.
“If in Jon’s mind he says, I’m gonna beat him on the feet, that’s what he’s gonna do,” Winkeljohn said. “But if Jon says, you know what, I’m gonna go home and just secure the win and show him what MMA is all about, welcome to my world, I’m sure he’ll take him down and bloody him up with elbows.”
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