"That shows his character" - Israel Adesanya reacts to Jon Jones' jibes on social media following his loss to Jan Blachowicz
Israel Adesanya lost his bid to win the UFC light-heavyweight title against Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259. After a tight three rounds, the big Pole resorted to executing perfect takedowns and dominated Israel Adesanya on the ground.
Amongst the fighters reacting to Adesanya's first career defeat was former champion Jon Jones. The former light-heavyweight champ took multiple jibes at the UFC middleweight champion on Twitter in the aftermath of his loss at UFC 259.
In a recent interview with ESPN, Israel Adesanya expressed his opinion on Jones' comments. According to Adesanya, Jones' mockery of his defeat says a lot about his character.
"I mean that shows his character. You can find the tweet of me tweeting after he wins even against Dominick Reyes when everyone was sh***ng on him. He barely beat Thiago Santos. Dominick Reyes arguably kicked his ass. Find the tweet of me going at him and then taking a victory lap," Israel Adesanya told Ariel Helwani.
"This shows the character of who you are. It shows the character of what kind of people we are. And I know you all gonna use this as clickbait but whatever. Nah, this shows the character. I mean, just time… time would tell. So I bet, this is how you wanna play? Cool. Wait till he loses his... Just time, time will tell. That’s all I will say," said Adesanya.
Israel Adesanya is still interested in a fight with Jones
Jon Jones no longer seems to find the fight against Adesanya worth his time. However, Israel Adesanya believes that his loss against Blachowicz was just a lull and a fight against Jon Jones is 'not dead'. Speaking of a potential matchup against Jones, Adesanya told Ariel Helwani:
"No. Hell, no. I’m not done. This is just a little valley in my story. In any movie, in any anime series, you always have valleys you know and then you rise up. This is just mine. I’m taking this very well and I know exactly what I have to do to get back to my true self so I’m doing just that. Nah, that fight’s not dead, I’m coming for that ass."