After years of trading blows with one another on social media and in interviews, the feud between Israel Adesanya and Jon Jones looks to be officially over.
In a strange turn of events, the two champions can be seen laughing and joking together in a Twitter video.
Adesanya even took to the newly launched Threads app to share a picture of a smiling Jones. He then shared the post to Twitter.
The History Behind The Rivalry
In an interview with Sporting News, Jones reiterated that he was not friends with Adesanya, but announced that ‘The Last Stylebender’ was his “favourite fighter” in the UFC. “He’s probably the most entertaining guy in the organisation right now,” added Jones.
On his appearance on the Impaulsive podcast, Adesanya was made aware of Jones’ comments, and explained where the bitter rivalry came from.
“He mentioned something about ‘I’d like to fight Israel’ and I was like, ‘why the f*** was this guy wanting to fight me? I’m middleweight,'” said Adesanya. “Then I responded back and then we had beef. For a few years it was like that.”
He downplayed the beef though and said: “Real recognise real. I’ll put it that way.”
Israel Adesanya vs Jon Jones
Throughout their feud, the talk of a super-fight between Adesanya and ‘Bones’ circulated. The Nigeria-born middleweight said that it could have happened around the time he fought Paulo Costa.
“It went really deep. That was around the time it could have happened, but I don’t know what happened. Scheduling, COVID reasons, and I fought Jan [Blachowicz],” he said.
Hopes of a fight between the two fizzled out. Jones moved up to heavyweight and won the title, and Adesanya turned his attention to Alex Pereira.
It may have been a bizarre sight to see these two great fighters on good terms, but as Adesanya put it, “there’s enough room for us to shine.”
Featured image credits to Israel Adesanya
