UFC president Dana White has outlined the timeline of a potential superfight between UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
Adesanya and Jones have gone back-and-forth at each other on social media in the last few months, and White has admitted in the past that he is intrigued by a potential superfight between the two. With Adesanya set to defend his middleweight belt against Yoel Romero at UFC 248 and Jones set to defend the light heavyweight title against Dominick Reyes at UFC 247, this superfight won’t be happening anytime soon. However, White has now given a timeline for the potential fight.
Speaking to Submission Radio after UFC 246, White explained how an Adesanya vs. Jones superfight could come to fruition. Here’s what he said.
“What I think needs to happen is, and Israel Adesanya is on track, if he beats Romero, Paulo Costa’s next. If he beats Costa, maybe there is one more guy there that would make sense. Gets that fight, beats him and then you start talking about Jon Jones if Israel really wants that fight,” White said (h/t TheBodyLockMMA.com).
Of course, Adesanya still has to get by Romero and Costa before Jones even becomes a possibility. And Jones still needs to get by Reyes as well as several other contenders at 205lbs in the meantime. But should all of those things happen we could potentially see Adesanya vs. Jones sometime in 2021.
For now, White just wants to see Adesanya stick around at 185lbs and try to become the next Anderson Silva of the division.
“But if you ask me, I think Israel should stay where he’s at. Keep picking these guys off for as long as he can and just build this phenomenal legacy,” White said.
When do you think we will see a superfight between Israel Adesanya and Jon Jones?