Eugene Bareman, coach of UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, has taken jibes at the former UFC light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones.
Adesanya and Jones have been going back and forth in interviews and on social media for almost two years. In recent months, ‘Bones’ has relinquished his light heavyweight title to move up to heavyweight, and ‘The Last Stylebender’ has announced he wants to challenge Jan Blachowicz for the 205lbs title.
Jones Emulating Adesanya
Speaking to Submission Radio (as transcribed by MMA Junkie), Bareman said that while Jones is all talk, Adesanya backs up his talk.
“The only person that’s ever shown that pension for moving around weight divisions has been Israel,” Bareman said. “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.”
Superior Mindset
Lauding his student, Bareman said that what sets Adesanya apart from Jones, and everyone else, is his mindset. And his willingness to test his skills out against “much bigger human beings”.
“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.”
If Israel Adesanya and Jon Jones ever step inside the Octagon together, who do you think will get their hand raised?
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