UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones was watching last night’s UFC 243 main event between Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker with keen interest.
After all, ‘Bones’ and ‘Stylebender’ had been going back and forth on social media and interviews for months in the lead up to tonight’s event.
Jon Jones had taken to Twitter earlier this week where he issued the following attack on Israel Adesanya.
“Israel Adesanya Keep convincing yourself that one day you’ll be ready to face a boss like me. I’ll keep convincing myself that when that day comes, I will make you my absolute bitch.” Jon Jones wrote. “You said you saw me fight in person against Thiago and I didn’t look the same. I also got to see you fight KG, didn’t need to be in person. You were almost knocked out on more than one occasion.”
‘Stylebender’ would later respond to the comments from Jon Jones with the following rebuttal.
“I didn’t talk about him, he’s the one that’s tweeting about me,” Israel Adesanya said of Jon Jones. “People ask me about him and I can’t just ignore the question, I’m going to respond. So yeah, if I get asked about him I’ll say whatever I have to say (but) he’s the one that’s Tweeting, I haven’t talked to him, I haven’t mentioned him. He came at me, so let him talk. He’s just a big talker.”
Israel Adesanya (17-0 MMA) was returning to action for the first time since April at last night’s UFC 243 event. In his most previous effort at UFC 236, Adesanya scored a thrilling unanimous decision victory over Kelvin Gastelum to capture the promotions interim middleweight title.
Since joining the UFC in February of 2018, ‘Stylebender‘ had gone a perfect 6-0 while picking up notable victories over Marvin Vettori, Brad Tavares, Derek Brunson and Anderson Silva.
Meanwhile, Robert Whittaker returned to the Octagon for the first time in over 15 months at last night’s UFC 243 event. ‘The Reaper’ was most previously seen in action at UFC 225 in June of 2018, where he defeated Yoel Romero via split decision in a ‘fight of the year’ performance.
Last night’s UFC 243 headliner lived up to expectations as ‘Stylebender’ and ‘The Reaper’ went to war immediately after the horn sounded to begin the opening round. In the final seconds of round one, Adesanya was able to drop Whittaker with a punch. Israel would carry that momentum into round two, where he dropped and finished Whittaker with a two-punch combination.
Official UFC 243 Result: Israel Adesanya def. Robert Whittaker via TKO in Round 2
Check out how Jon Jones reacted to Israel Adesanya defeating Robert Whittaker at UFC 243 below:
By the time this kid gets his confidence together I’ll probably already be in the heavyweight division. I don’t need to wait till 2021 to start believing in myself https://t.co/PE16eSVl9i
— BONY (@JonnyBones) October 7, 2019
“By the time this kid gets his confidence together I’ll probably already be in the heavyweight division. I don’t need to wait till 2021 to start believing in myself.”
Do you think we will see a future fight between Israel Adesanya and Jon Jones? Sound off in the comments section PENN Nation!
This article first appeared on BJPENN.com October 5, 2019