Israel Adesanya responds to criticism from Jon Jones over UFC 259 loss to Jan Blachowicz

Israel Adesanya has responded to the criticism he received from rival Jon Jones following his unanimous decision loss to Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259.

Earlier this month the UFC’s reigning middleweight champion in Adesanya moved up a weight class to challenge Blachowicz for the promotions light heavyweight title. While ‘Stylebender’ had predicted that he would avoid being touched by Jan’s legendary “Polish power” that did not prove to be the case. Instead, Jan Blachowicz went on to handle Israel Adesanya in the grappling department on route to a unanimous decision victory.

The loss marked the first of Israel’s mixed martial arts career and has sent him back down to middleweight for the foreseeable future.

Image Credit: @ufc on Twitter

Former UFC light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones was of course watching UFC 259 with keen interest. ‘Bones’ has had a long-standing rivalry with ‘Stylebender’ and even had some exchanges with Blachowicz since vacating the 205lbs title.

Jon Jones was extremely critical of Israel Adesanya’s performance at UFC 259, ultimately scoffing at the idea that ‘Stylebender’ would pose him any threat whatsoever.

“That shows his character,” Adesanya said told ESPN (via MMAFighting). “Find a tweet of me tweeting and kicking him when everyone is sh*tting on him. He barely beat Thiago Santos. Dominick Reyes, I believe, kicked his ass. It shows the character of who we are. It shows the character of what kind of people we are.”

Israel Adesanya continued:

“And I know you all are going to use this as clickbait for a title to get some clicks. It just shows the character. Time will tell. There’s going to be a time. This just shows me his true character. This is how you want to play it? Cool. Time will tell, that’s all I’ll say. I’m just taking my time and doing my thing, but he should do the same, because his life could be in shambles. … Take your victory lap now. Take your shots now. Cause, yeah, you know what happens. Take your little victory lap, because you’re one of those people that likes to take joy in another man’s demise.”

Israel Adesanya continued to take shot at the character of Jon Jones:

“I could have done the same thing to him with Thiago Santos, when everyone was sh*tting on him, I could have done the same thing when he got arrested, and he was all crying in the car and he knows the officer by his first name. I could have been tweeting, I could have had my own victory lap on three different occasions I could have, but I didn’t because that’s not my character, show the difference between him and me. Vast difference, and he’s the guy that’s all, ‘Hallelujah.’”

What do you think of the comments made by Israel Adesanya regarding Jon Jones criticism of his performance against Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259? Share your thoughts in the comment section PENN Nation!