Jon Jones claims Israel Adesanya is scared to fight him

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has his hands full currently as he gears up to make yet another title defense this weekend in the main event of UFC 247 against undefeated #1 contender Dominick Reyes.

Although his focus is on Reyes, Jones had a thing or two to say about a man who's been on his radar since quite some time - middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. The pair have been trading barbs regularly on social media and there were rumors of the rivalry culminating into a fight sometime down the line. UFC President Dana White recently admitted he would book the match up at light heavyweight if the fighters want it badly.

In a recent interaction with MMA Fighting, Jones spoke about a potential fight against Adesanya. The champ said that Adesanya's fighting style doesn't impress him one bit and he has seen thousands of fighters like the New Zealand-born Nigerian.

“At the end of the day, this isn’t K-1. This isn’t whatever league he used to fight in. I’ve watched him stepping over here, and literally, I’ve watched him with his legs stiff. His swagger is exciting to the fans, but I know a thousand people like him. I grew up with people like him. He doesn’t impress me the way he impresses everyone else."

'Bones' believes that Adesanya is scared of fighting him and his willingness to wait for another year before facing Jones comes across as a sign of weakness.

“He’s scared. That’s all it is. When he says you’ve got to respect the game or the game will humble you, he’s talking about not fighting me now or me beating him cause he’s scared. When you let a fighter like me know that you’re not prepared to fight me today and you wish you had another year to prepare and all that sh*t, it lets me know your mental state. That’s all I need to know. If he honestly thinks I’m going to be somehow a weaker version of myself next year, he’s sadly mistaken. ”