Israel Adesanya reacts to Jon Jones' move to Heavyweight; plans to follow him to the division?

Israel Adesanya and Jon Jones have had a verbal back-and-forth for a while now. The two men have made it clear that they don't like each other and while they're on two different paths, it seems inevitable that both men will meet inside the Octagon one day.

With Jon Jones having vacated the Light Heavyweight title and moved up to Heavyweight, the MMA world is waiting to see who his next opponent will be. Israel Adesanya, speaking to the media ahead of UFC 253 (H/T MMA Junkie), reacted to Jon Jones' move to vacate the 205-lb title:

“Look how long it took him to move up to heavyweight. Finally. He was expecting me to do it straight away, but I hadn’t defended my belt yet. I’ve defended my belt twice now, I’m going to defend it a few more times and then do what I set out to do. But, yeah, the pot calling the kettle black on his part. Go put some (expletive) muscle on your chopstick legs and go (expletive) fight Francis Ngannou and watch him break you. I hope he doesn’t, though. Maybe he does. Who knows?”

Israel Adesanya has made it clear that his aim is to eventually fight at Heavyweight as well:

“One hundred percent. It doesn’t change my plans,” Adesanya said. “My plan is still going forward as planned. So, yeah, same thing.”

What lies ahead for Israel Adesanya?

For Israel Adesanya, he has to look right ahead as he takes on Paulo Costa in the main event of UFC 253 in late September. On the same card, Dominick Reyes will fight Jan Blachowicz for the vacant Light Heavyweight Championship.

Israel Adesanya doesn't have an easy task as Middleweight Champion, but he's proven that he's more than capable of delivering on the big stage. Robert Whittaker vs Jared Cannonier at UFC 254 could be the fight to determine his next opponent should he beat Paulo Costa at UFC 253.