Israel Adesanya putting a potential Jon Jones fight on hold following first career loss at UFC 259

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is putting a potential Jon Jones fight on hold following his loss to Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259.

Adesanya lost a unanimous decision to Blachowicz in the main event of UFC 259. The striking battles were closely fought, but Blachowicz utilized his entire mixed martial arts skillset to win the fight. The Pole was able to take Adesanya down and control him on the floor for the last couple of rounds to take home the decision and hand Adesanya his first career defeat. It’s a tough loss for Adesanya, who lost his bid to become a two-division UFC champion, but despite losing to Blachowicz, he is still the UFC middleweight champion.

Following UFC 259, Adesanya spoke at the post-fight press conference about what’s next for him. One of the questions posed to “The Last Stylebender” was whether or not he’s still interested in a potential superfight with Jones. For the last few years, these two have been going after each other on social media, and fans have been anticipating a fight. However, following the loss to Blachowicz, Adesanya put it on the backburner. (h/t Chisanga Malata)

Israel Adesanya on a potential fight with Jon Jones:

"Never say never. Never say never.

"But right now, I'm going back down to 185 and getting my work done.

"But fuck that nigga anyway."#UFC259 pic.twitter.com/HQKqcKjnp2

— Chisanga Malata (@Chisanga_Malata) March 7, 2021

Adesanya and Jones are two of the biggest stars in the UFC, so a fight between them is always going to be brought up by fans and media, but it just doesn’t make sense at this point. Adesanya showed against Blachowicz that he isn’t a light heavyweight in MMA, and Jones is moving up to heavyweight for his next fight later this year. There is too much of a weight discrepancy between Adesanya and Jones right now for a fight to happen. You can never say never in MMA, but it sure seems like this fight is just a dream at this point.

Do you think we will ever see Israel Adesanya fight Jon Jones, or has the ship sailed?